‘Use extra funding for tech if NHS is to survive’
Only a technological revolution can help the health service weather the coming storm, says Hunt
THE NHS must use extra funds to lead a “technological revolution” in order to “weather the storm” of the biggest challenge to face the health service in 70 years, the Health Secretary says today.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt warns that “the biggest risk” facing the country is if a future funding boost is spent without a “dramatic transformation of modern healthcare”.
Mr Hunt says the NHS must build on its legacy of “leading the world in medical breakthroughs” by pioneering services such as patients being diagnosed using artificial intelligence and test results being delivered via smartphone.
He hails “superhuman” efforts by healthcare workers to respond to increasing pressures on the service caused by an ageing population, which will mean an extra million people over the age of 75 in Britain within a decade. But he says “sheer physical exhaustion and the constant pressure of rising demand means now is the time to give NHS staff hope of a different way forward”, calling for major changes, with technology at their heart.
Mr Hunt’s comments come as The Daily Telegraph today begins a series exploring the state of the service and its role in modern Britain as the NHS approaches its 70th birthday.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, is expected to mark the anniversary by announcing extra funding for the NHS.
Today, Mr Hunt warns against “putting our heads in the sand and relying on ad hoc sticking plaster solutions” and says that any cash injection must be used to fund “ambitious” ideas that will “lead a revolution worldwide” in regards to using technology in healthcare.
He says: “If the public are going to put more money into the NHS, we must prove that every penny is well spent.”
Mr Hunt adds: “Back in 1948 we turned heads all over the world by being one of the very first countries to set up a universal healthcare system. The NHS came to define what a 20th-century healthcare system should look like. Could we use the power of technology to define a 21st century healthcare system as well? That is the opportunity, and I have no doubt our NHS will once again rise to the challenge.”
Setting out his vision of a dramatic transformation of healthcare within a decade, Mr Hunt continues: “The biggest risk, however, is that we sort out yesterday’s problem tomorrow. We may well be asking computers as well as doctors for a diagnosis, which will look not just at our medical history but our genetic profile as well.
“And all our results will be pinged
straight through to medical records sitting on our phones,” he says.
The comments from Mr Hunt come amid increasing tensions within Government about future funding of the health service. Mrs May is expected to announce a multi-year settlement within weeks. The Prime Minister is understood to back Mr Hunt’s view that the public is willing to accept tax rises to pay for the NHS, if they can see the money being used wisely. But the Chancellor is pushing back against demands to increase by funding by around £4billion a year via tax rises.
Today Mr Hunt says any funding boost must rise to a “once in a generation challenge” facing the NHS, replacing “hopelessly disjointed” care systems for the elderly with a joined-up approach. And he says it would be a major error if extra funds simply soaked up current pressures, instead of investing in radical changes.
He says: “If the public are going to put more money into the NHS, we must prove that every penny is well spent. So let’s sort out the waste and productivity issues that still see wild variations in the prices hospitals pay for basics like surgical gloves – £1.27 in one hospital compared to just 50 pence in another.”
It comes amid growing investment in artificial intelligence across different fields of medicine. Recent trials have found computer programmes able to distinguish tumours from harmless growths with high degrees of accuracy.
The NHS has a difficult history with regard to IT, with a £12 billion national programme introduced by Labour eventually abandoned, and subsequent efforts to share medical records beset by problems. But Mr Hunt insists today that the health service has the potential to lead a technological revolution, with Britain leading the world in genomics and home to five of the world’s top 10 medical research universities.
He set out a series of challenges for the next decade for the NHS, calling for improvements in cancer survival rates, which still lag behind those in countries such as France and Germany.
And he says the NHS needs to improve its record on maternity safety, to “end the scandal” which sees four families every week receiving multi-million pound settlements because their child was left disabled at birth.