The government must back its vision for digital with funding

Tech companies who have invested heavily in the healthcare market could do much more to help their NHS partners. But their hands are tied, writes Mizaic’s Jon Pickering

We design, build, and implement software solely for the NHS. All our projects have demonstrable ROI and cash-releasing, positive financial outcomes for NHS Trusts. And we hear, every week, how our EDMS, MediViewer — and our digital transformation specialists — are driving demonstrable change in hospitals throughout the country. Our core purpose is to revolutionise the clinician-patient experience. As I reflect on the last nine months in my new position as CEO of Mizaic, it gives me a huge sense of pride to acknowledge how much progress we have already made.

But why am I not more excited?

Because, like many other NHS-focused tech companies, we are still waiting for the government to align funding to the ambitious digitisation objectives they have set for every hospital in the country. In fact, we are often left wondering — against the backdrop of the current UK economic climate — if the funding will ever materialise.

Levelling-up is not enough

The recent levelling-up funding was a force for good, helping some trusts onto the first rungs of the digital maturity ladder, but much more support is needed. The timeline for achieving the digitisation goals keeps moving to the right as progress stalls, and we don’t see the picture drastically changing anytime soon, unless there is a fundamental shift in thinking at a ministerial level.

Our intelligence tells us that over 100 acute hospitals still have antiquated paper medical record systems in place, which represents operating costs in excess of £1m per annum (per trust), simply to ensure a patient record arrives at the right appointment at the right time. Many don’t, of course — some records are lost and never found. The impact of this on patients’ health doesn’t bear thinking about.

Compare this to the benefit of a clinician having a complete picture of your patient record when you visit hospital for an appointment, not to mention the peace of mind of having your medical history – often recording significant life events – safe and secure. Feels much better, doesn’t it?

A lot of positive talk

There is a lot of positive talk about the role of ICSs in the new NHS strategy, so that patient data can be shared regionally across different care settings. I think we all support the vision for ICSs, but we also acknowledge that any convergence will be difficult – and it certainly won’t happen around EPRs. There are many reasons for this, including the lack of EPR vendor consistency across regions and different care settings having different requirements, not to mention budgets. This is where, going forward, we believe we can play a vital role in being the intelligent content store for patient data, providing federated access across a region, enabled through our open approach to clinical system interoperability.

We are ready to enable that change for any hospital or ICS that wants our help. EDMS implementations represent huge undertakings, and we know that NHS teams often lack the digital skills, if not bandwidth, to undertake such projects. But that is where we — and other technology partners who are invested heavily in the NHS market — can stand together with trusts on this all-important journey.

However, funding needs to become available to match the government’s ambition. Otherwise, the digitisation vision is merely an aspiration, not an achievable goal. And that’s not what anybody wants for our NHS.

Jon Pickering is CEO of Mizaic.