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Gifts from The Morning Star
Digital dreams are a techno-nightmare for the NHS
SOLOMON HUGHES looks at the multiple IT projects that are currently failing the NHS, and asks why the state doesn’t simply train its own health staff to do the work in-house
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London

BOTH the Tories and Labour are promising “digital” will save the NHS — but in the real world, this technophile talk sounds empty, because the government’s “big contracts” watchdog warns the NHS’s main IT programmes are in real danger of failure.

This year, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said that “supporting innovation and the adoption of the right digital health technologies” is key to NHS recovery after the pandemic.

Barclay thinks digital is the answer to doing more with less, arguing “we know” that “digitally mature NHS trusts operate with approximately 10 per cent improved efficiency.”

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