MARKET REPORT Healthcare
The NHS Gets a
Government Technology Lift
The UK health sector is
rarely out of the news but
that is often for the wrong
reasons. In an era where
the population is aging the
pressure on resources increases
and demands for more spending
just keep on coming.
Successive governments
will come up with initiatives,
but this is a huge issue to deal
with especially at a time when
technology has so much to oer
the sector in terms of improving
health outcomes as well as
productivity.
is is a sector that is also
constantly being reviewed and
commented upon by nongovernmental
organisations
such as think-tanks, analysts
and invested suppliers.
Currently the UK
Government has two high
prole actions on its agenda;
rstly, the Autumn Budget 2018
revealed, in the 70th year of
its formation, the NHS budget
will increase by £20.5 billion a
year in real terms by 2023-24,
an average real rate of growth
in the NHS’s budget of 3.4%
a year. is will take the NHS
budget from £114.6 billion in
2018-19 to £147.8 billion in
2023-24.
More recently, this February
the Government announced
NHSX, a new joint organisation
for digital, data and technology
to take forward digital
transformation in the NHS,
With the launch of NHSX and the UK Government set
to increase spending on the NHS, the largest part of
the Healthcare sector, additional funds may well be
available for a sector that, despite austerity cuts,
has remained a huge investor in IT and
communications equipment
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allowing patients and sta to
benet from the latest digital
systems and technology.
e aim is to bring the
benets of modern technology
to every patient and clinician.
It will combine the best talent
from government, the NHS and
industry.
e Government
acknowledges that currently,
much NHS technology relies
on systems designed for a
pre-internet age. Patients are
not getting the care they need
because their data does not
follow them round the system.
Change has been slow
because responsibility for
digital, data and tech has been
split across multiple agencies,
teams and organisations.
NHSX will change this by
bringing together all the levers
of policy, implementation and
change for the rst time.
‘NHSX will work with the
NHS and the wider digital
economy to build world-class
digital services. ese will
improve care for patients and
enable medical research’.
Signicantly for suppliers,
the NHSX organisation will
use experts in technology,
digital, data and cyber security
to deliver on the Health
Secretary’s tech vision and the
Long-Term Plan for the NHS.
Where is the disruption
coming from? Digital
Disruption is all around… how
is it impacting this particular
vertical and how can the
Channel react?
Neal Humphrey, Senior
Sales Exec at Alcatel-Lucent
Enterprises says that everything
in healthcare is going mobile,
consequently there is an
explosion of IoT devices that
need to be securely managed
onto the hospitals data network.
“Automating, and in turn
simplifying the on boarding >
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