Hunt tech adviser calls for ‘new central investment’

The NHS requires a ‘new central investment’ to achieve digital maturity and realise the potential of emerging technologies, according to the person who was commissioned by Jeremy Hunt to examine the issue in 2015.

Bob Wachter was commissioned by the then health and social care secretary in 2015, and authored the 2016 report Making IT Work, which called on all NHS trusts to achieve the “realistic target” of a good level of digital maturity by 2023.

While Professor Wachter told HSJ that there had been “reasonably good” progress, he said it was “not quite what I would have hoped for” seven years on from his report. 

He acknowledged that factors such as the pandemic and the subsequent economic situation slowed progress, but added that he was “a little bit worried” at the state of digital maturity in some areas, including interoperability and reliability of key systems such as electronic patient records.

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Source: HSJ, 1 November 2023