The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan - why technology matters

The recent release of the Government’s 10 Year NHS plan sets out an ambitious vision, backed with tangible proposals, to address the challenges that the Public Health Service faces today. Hema Purohit, Founder, Lotus Advisory & Consulting Ltd, discusses some practical ideas on the proposed way of working and how technology will support the new focus that will be less on hospitals and more on out of-hospital care.

“It (current NHS) is hospital centric, detached from communities and organises its care into multiple, fragmented siloes. We need to shift to provide continuous, accessible and integrated care. The neighbourhood health service is our alternative. It will bring care into local communities, convene professionals into patient-centred teams and end fragmentation”

FIT FOR THE FUTURE, 10 Year Health Plan for England Executive Summary

Why technology matters

This new NHS model of community health hubs and pushing care out a little bit further - a ‘one stop shop’ for patient care and the place from which multidisciplinary teams operate’ comes as no surprise. The goal is that these neighbourhood health centres will be open at least 12 hours a day and 6 days a week, making access to care easier and more accessible. This will direct care away from A&E and hospitals to make it more immediate and patient centric, as well as more comprehensive, combining clinical and holistic therapies.

So what will be needed to make a successful health hub that serves the population and not a bottleneck for care? Clearly technology will underlie any successful change, indeed the plan states: “Today the NHS is behind the technological curve. This Plan propels it to the front. The NHS of the future will be a service that offers instant access to help and appointments. One that predicts and prevents ill health rather than simply diagnosing and treating it. A patient-controlled system, in place of today’s centralised state bureaucracy, and one where frontline staff are empowered to reshape services.”

However, the challenges for something like a central hub to work properly, means that technology has to be considered right from the start. You can't just take a GP surgery that's been around for the last 30 years and make it the new health nirvana.

Location, location, location

While technology advances will underpin these new services, it is important to take a step back and consider what will be the location of the hub. With increased footfall consideration needs to be given to accessibility, to accommodate the elderly, people with limited mobility and children. This means, easy parking, access to bus services or drop off points, even wider corridors and less stairs or well serviced, fully functioning lifts. Many current health centres already address these issues well, however, some health care centres and GP practices are established in older buildings which may be costly to maintain and repair. They may not be able to address accessibility issues, particularly if they are located in a busy town. If the 10 year plan is focussed on work and cost efficiencies, then the right physical location should consider factors such as smart lighting, water meters and a robust IT infrastructure to support the increased footfall and demand on systems and processes.

There will be many different services and professionals working at the hub, which means the network infrastructure will need to accommodate multiple applications, devices and care equipment.

Green credentials and work efficiencies

There is also the tricky question of sustainability and providing eco-friendly workplaces. With many computers, medical systems, lighting etc. using energy, are there efficient cooling systems in place that support long term eco goals?

Another key question is how will the maintenance and records of assets be managed? For example, in the spirit of driving efficiencies with new technology, in a rehabilitation unit a physiotherapist might use robotic gloves, sensory devices, exoskeletons, weights equipment – all of which needs to be managed. Manually recording the different assets with stickers is not an option. The records, software updates, battery charging of new medical devices, tagging of phones and laptops, all need to be automated from the start.

There are systems and solutions available – a control and command centre type scenario – where all the IoT devices can be plugged in and be proactively managed. It can flag when something needs to be updated, recharged or when it's end of life, automatically and create the ticket for action. This technology has been around for some time and is already in use by IT departments in many hospitals and Trusts. But for a newly formed hub it needs to be integral to their operations from the start to manage and deliver services.

A positive environment for wellbeing

Increasingly it has become evident that environment plays an important part in a person’s wellbeing. The creation of green outdoor spaces and gardens, light, well designed waiting rooms – these have been raised as important factors in providing a positive healthcare experience. With a key part of the government’s plan outlining proactive care and health and well-being, how you feel can be a major factor in recovery.

For a health hub the aesthetics will be key. How the building and facility looks is going to impact the way that people react to treatment. If an appointment is not a positive experience this may prevent someone from an important follow up treatment or test. Perhaps even the colours chosen will need to move away from the classic NHS institutional palette that we have all become familiar with.

Signposting care services

Technology could play an important part in helping people navigate their way around what potentially could be a confusing place. With many different specialist care services and health professionals working under one roof there will need to be ways to signpost patients around the building.

The future might be to provide an automated wayfinding servicing. As a patient walks into the hub, they will get the option to connect to the hospital's Wi-Fi. Once connected, the patient will be able to register digitally, receive prompts on where to go and notify key personnel of their arrival, thus eliminating the legacy crowds in reception areas. This could prevent waiting in registration areas and direct patients straight to their particular healthcare service.

Many patients are already able to schedule and change their own appointments, but this could be taken a step further. For example, for somebody who's visiting a facility, if they don't have their own car, it could be prompted towards the end of the appointment to ask if they want to book transport, relieving the administration burden from the hub.

Of course, there are many patients who don’t, or aren’t, able to use a smartphone. The ideal is that if the majority of footfall can be automated, then this frees capacity to manage the less able, maybe a stroke patient, or very elderly. Again, the technology could be in place to pre-register and let the facility know that the patient doesn’t have a phone, so that when they come in somebody needs to be there to greet them.

Technology brings change to the NHS

There is no doubt that technology has already given us more power over our everyday lives as we use apps to manage our banking, communications and many other services. It will be key to the reinvention of the NHS, from offering instant access to help and appointments to helping predict and prevent ill-health. These are exciting times to be part of as we look forward to undertaking change across one of our most valuable organisations and services.

Hema Purohit is the Founder of Lotus Advisory & Consulting Ltd. She has over 30 years of experience combining hands-on expertise with visionary leadership. Most recently, she was Director and CTO for Healthcare & Public Sector across EMEA at Microsoft. Other key roles include Director for Government & Public Sector in the UK and Ireland at Google Cloud. Her career has been defined by driving large-scale change, leveraging deep expertise in AI, multi-cloud strategies, and innovative architectural design to create lasting impact.