Fresh skills needed to deliver a digital NHS

 

The recent Topol Review predicts that 90 per cent of all NHS jobs will require digital skills within 20 years and that fresh education is required to keep up with advancements in technologies, such as AI and robotics.

 

Responding to the Topol Review, the chief executive of NHS Employers, Danny Mortimer, has called for new technology in the NHS to be “properly funded by government and not left to already stretched individual NHS trusts to dig even deeper to fund.”

 

Keeping the focus on technology, the government has announced the creation NHSX, a new unit which aims to deliver the benefits of technology to the NHS.

 

The government says that the adoption and development of digital systems, data and technology has been slow because responsibility was split across multiple agencies. NHSX aims to bring these together.

 

Among other things, it will set national policy and develop best practice for NHS technology, as well as create, agree and mandate clear standards.

 

Another area where technology can make a great difference is through scanning patients, medication and equipment at every touchpoint in the patient journey. Glen Hodgson, head of healthcare at GS1 UK, explains the benefits of standardising this process by using GS1 barcodes on page 39.

 

Michael Lyons, editor