August 3, 2026
Industry Voice: The critical shift from Frontline Digitisation to Frontline Productivity at NHS England
Earlier this year, NHS England announced that the Frontline Digitisation programme will be replaced by the Frontline Productivity programme. This is more than a rebranding exercise, it is a masterstroke by NHS England (NHSE) as it shifts leadership responsibility for realising the value organisations will get from investing in digital. The focus to date on buying and deploying systems such as the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and the technology required to support that now shift to realising the benefits of this tech. Rebranding to the Frontline Productivity programme signals that most of these systems are implemented and live, and that digitisation is largely delivered.
NHSE is boldly reaffirming that the purpose of digitisation is the benefits that it provides to frontline clinical workers, patients, and healthcare organisations through efficiency and productivity gain. By creating a more digitally mature NHS, not only do doctors and nurses benefit from access to patient records that are available electronically, so supporting better care decisions, but a whole raft of other professions can also benefit from the secondary use of patient information, such as public health planners, clinical and academic researchers, and those involved in contract management for health services, to name just a few.
Why is a focus on technology investments and productivity great news for everyone?
The move highlights to the wider healthcare leadership community such as finance directors, CEOs, HR directors, and medical directors that the first phase of digitisation is now completed, and the responsibility for making the technology work well is now moving to the broader organisation. These leaders cannot ignore the technology agenda when they are responsible for realising the benefits therein. CIOs and the digitisation leadership teams have provided the tools, now organisations need to ensure that these tools are optimised to deliver the productivity gains originally envisaged.
This change of focus towards productivity will influence the type of metrics used to measure success. Previously digitisation was measured by the maturity of the systems and capabilities that had been delivered. How well the systems are being used day-to-day, or how happy the users are with the new systems typically receive less attention. While measuring what functionality is deployed will still be important, the new metrics will focus more on areas such as productivity, time and resources saved, and workflows made more efficient or faster.
The new metrics required to measure frontline productivity are typically those that are important to people beyond the CIO. For example, we will start to see the degree to which digitisation is delivering financial savings, helping to retain scarce clinical staff, and freeing up clinical time for patients. Another benefit that digitisation brings is the ability to pass on tasks that the NHS has traditionally done to other people such as friends and family and the patients themselves, in a way that they are happy with. We’ve seen this in other industries already such as retail where self-service checkout is now the norm.
The NHS has experienced a decade of underfunding since 2010. Despite cash boosts in 2018 and 2019. Between 2009-2019 the NHS budgets rose on average just 1.4% per year, compared to 3.7% average rises since the NHS was established. Demand for NHS services rises at approximately 4% per year (figures from The Kings Fund). The rise in demand is due to a variety of factors including an aging population, new medicines, and people living longer with chronic conditions, therefore increasing productivity is more vital now than ever before. The only sustainable way to meet rising demand is to make better use of the resources the NHS already has. To achieve this, digitisation must become business as usual and consistently deliver the productivity and efficiency gains it was always intended to provide.
As metrics start to measure successes including financial, time and resources saved, and even patient empowerment, the spotlight moves to many more departments within the healthcare organisation that now have a vested interest in ensuring that digitisation delivers the benefits needed in order to meet the increase in demand.
How will the shift to Frontline Productivity amplify the clinical voice?
Improving productivity will free up capacity to cope with more demand, however, the benefits don’t end there. The clinical voice that is tied to patient safety or tied to risk management in all its forms, is made much louder through this focus on frontline productivity and digitisation. Organisations will reduce clinical risk if the EPR is implemented well, because if the digital environment is well maintained, sharing information at the right time with the right people will result in a risk reduction with the associated clinical benefits.
Another benefit is that it makes adopting common policies and procedures that have proven successful for other healthcare organisations that serve the same population that much easier. In this way, a group of hospitals and clinics may benefit from the successes seen in each individual location. The ability to share digital information means that decisions no longer need to be made in isolation of near neighbours, as may have happened in the past.
How does Imprivata support Frontline Productivity?
The shift to Frontline Productivity reinforces an important truth: technology alone does not improve healthcare. Value is only realised when digital tools fit naturally into clinical workflows, reduce friction for frontline staff, and give clinicians more time to focus on patient care.
This is the philosophy that has guided Imprivata's work with the NHS for many years. Whether it is reducing the time clinicians spend logging into systems, enabling secure access to mobile devices at the point of care, simplifying electronic prescribing workflows, or reducing the burden on IT service desks, our focus has always been on removing everyday barriers that slow clinicians down. These may seem like small improvements in isolation, but together they deliver measurable gains in productivity, staff satisfaction and, ultimately, patient care.
As NHS England's focus shifts from measuring digital maturity to measuring real-world outcomes, the organisations that will succeed are those that continually optimise the clinician experience, rather than viewing digital transformation as a completed project.
The move to Frontline Productivity marks the beginning of the next chapter of digital transformation across the NHS. Success will be measured not by the number of systems deployed, but by the time returned to clinicians, the resilience of the workforce, the experience of patients and the value delivered to the health service.
Bio: Andy Kinnear was formerly an NHS CIO and is now an independent consultant. He has been a member of the British Computer Society (BCS) since 2011 and a Fellow since 2016. He was Chair of the British Computer Society Health Committee for four years and was instrumental in bringing CHIME to the UK. Andy is also one of the founders of the FedIP and part of the committee that launched the NHS Digital Academy.