The government’s newly published 10-year health plan is a wide-ranging programme affecting many parts of the NHS in England, with technology earmarked to play a major role.
In his speech launching the plan, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that it would involve a shift from “the analogue NHS we have at the moment to a truly digital health service”.
He added that this meant a health service “capable of seizing the enormous opportunities before us in science and technology”, including fields such as genomics, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics.
Starmer also said that the NHS App would give patients more control over their health and become, as the technology improves, like having “a doctor in your pocket”.
The app will also provide a “front door to the entire NHS” by 2028, with new functionality added every year after that.
The new functionality will include a ‘My Health’ feature to provide personalised information based on test results, NHS data, and data from wearables to monitor metrics such as step counts, heart rate and sleep quality.
New tool will see NHS App provide instant AI-powered advice
The My NHS GP tool will leverage AI algorithms to check patients’ concerns or symptoms and ask follow-up questions in order to provide instant advice.
It is not intended to deal with serious medical issues or replace human doctors, but to provide “advice for non-urgent care, and help finding the most appropriate service first time”.
Other tools will include My Care for management of long-term conditions, My Medicines for medicine management, My Vaccines for inoculations, and My Children for patients to oversee their children’s healthcare.
A single patient record, accessible via the app, will bring together all relevant patient information and data in a “single, secure and authoritative account”.
Beyond the NHS App, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will have its remit extended to cover technological devices, diagnostics and digital products.
The body will also identify outdated technologies and treatments and remove them from the NHS.
A new digital HealthStore will be set up to help patients find approved apps and digital healthcare products, and community pharmacies will become increasingly automated, with “dispensing robots” speeding up the process.
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