Image: © idrutu | iStock Max Parmentier, CEO and Co-Founder of Birdie , discusses the digital transformation within the UK’s healthcare system and how new solutions can support patient care According to a recent survey published by the British Medical Journal , only a quarter of the UK’s 182 NHS trusts use digital systems, even though 88% have access to them. To illustrate what this means day-to-day, there’s a trust that uses roughly 25 million pages of A4 paper each year. In 2023, this is a bizarre reality. The government launched the NHS’s digital transformation almost five years ago in the ‘Long Term Plan’. That same year, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that email should replace paper and fax machines in hospitals. Yet, according to a Health and Social Care Committee report earlier this year, parts of the NHS lack even ‘the most basic functioning IT equipment’. The report referred to the health service’s progress as ‘slow’ and ‘uneven’. How legacy systems affect health outcomes This failure to adopt digital technologies costs more than administration speed: it costs people their health. The UK’s healthcare system is under more strain than ever, especially considering the rising age of the population. […]
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