No one uses fax machines any more. X-ray films in their bulging racks are a thing of the past. Online and phone consultations, hastened by Covid, are now commonplace. Progress happens and people can gain greatly. The NHS can be better this way. And yet…
The new government has made ‘digitalisation’ one of its core concerns for righting the NHS. As a principle this is to be welcomed and is surely overdue. The last government made similar claims but did scarcely anything about it – no surprise, given years of systematic and deliberate neglect. Investing more in this technology has the potential to give patients and healthcare professional alike greater empowerment over the choices they face, and the resources they can command. A better, better-connected world.
As with changes to treatment which occur without regard to the wider social picture, there are risks in embracing this bold step which need addressing. Privacy concerns are paramount, as is the reliance on vast, unaccountable industry giants who frankly are unlikely to place welfare above the importance of profit (anyone who doubts that need only consider the Post Office’s over-reliance on Fujitsu’s ‘Horizon’ software) and even more unlikely to be easily or cheaply replaced should the reliance prove ill judged. These immensely powerful holders of information, much of it personal and highly sensitive, will need matching constraints if the doubts over security and privacy are to be assuaged. Assurances about anonymisation remain unconvincing. We share the view that giving one of the biggest sources of health information in the world to private companies so they can make a profit when that information was given to a public body in good faith needs to be carefully and diligently gauged – the taxpayer should gain handsomely from that treasure trove, in the form of a better health service. Will we? What price our priceless NHS data?
Not everyone is digitally ‘connected’. There are a shockingly high proportion (almost a third) of people aged over 75 for whom accessing data digitally, and using the equipment, remains fraught with anxiety and challenge. Yet these people are likely to be the demographic group most in need of healthcare. Can the new digitalisation help them if they remain ‘out of touch’?
Despite these problems and challenges, the new will to make the NHS a service which uses the best of what technology can offer to give us all the best chances of health is to be welcomed. As long as the underpinning principle that reaching and helping people remains at the centre of it all.
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