Paging all doctors: minister will bin your antiquated kit

THE new Health Secretary will call on doctors and nurses to “throw away their pagers” and replace them with smartphone apps, as he sets out his vision for the NHS.

Matt Hancock, who gained a reputation for promoting new technology as culture secretary, and was the first MP to launch his own app, will focus on “tech transformation” in the health service. He will make his first speech as Health Secretary today at West Suffolk Hospital, and will set out three early priorities – “technology, the health and care workforce, and prevention”.

One of his first targets will be to update communication in the NHS, which uses more than one in 10 of the world’s pagers. The dated technology costs an estimated £6.6million a year, according to a report by Commontime, the digital solutions company. One pilot study has shown that replacing pagers with smartphone apps will save nurses more than 20 minutes and doctors almost 50 minutes every shift.

Mr Hancock replaced Jeremy Hunt last month in a reshuffle, following the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson.

He is expected to say today: “Technology used right is a catalyst for greater connectivity and empowerment – on both sides. Not only can the right use of technology save time and money, it can improve patient safety… Cutting edge technology is also improving safety and saving clinicians’ time.”

He will also announce that £412 million will be made available to improve patient care and allow more patients to access health services at home. A further £75 million will be available to hospital trusts to install state-of-the-art electronic systems, to “reduce potentially deadly medication errors by up to 50 per cent” when compared with the old paper systems.