NHS Trusts: Digital Infrastructure

5. What steps he is taking to improve access to digital infrastructure for NHS trusts.

This Government will invest up to £10 billion in NHS technology and transformation by 2028-29. That includes ambient voice technology, which supports doctors to write up notes more quickly so that they can focus on patient care, and the single patient record, which will bring a patient’s health data into one secure system, limiting repetition across services. We will use technologies like these to free up staff time, so that they can spend more time on care and less on administration.

It is welcome that the Government are making progress on digital infrastructure and the single patient record, which is good news for patients and for the NHS, but patients in Peterborough risk missing out on some of the benefits because of the poor state of the local hospital and the North West Anglia NHS foundation trust’s IT. I thank the Secretary of State and those on the Front Bench for engaging with me on this issue previously, but what reassurance can he give that the Department will work with the NWAFT to ensure that we have the infrastructure we need in Peterborough, so that patients in my constituency benefit the most?

I put it on the record that my hon. Friend has been a most determined advocate for patients and staff at the North West Anglia NHS foundation trust, who clearly deserve better IT systems. We have agreed plans to replace the trust’s electronic patient record system and supporting infrastructure. We will go on to provide practical support and guidance, including help with costs, and we will pair the trust with other NHS organisations that have overcome similar issues in the past.

I spent a day last week with the palliative care team at William Harvey hospital in Ashford, which serves a large chunk of my constituency, and I was amazed by how much time they spent gathering and sharing information. They were clicking through on really old systems, all on pdf, which takes up a huge amount of time that they could instead be spending on clinical care, especially given how technology is evolving. When are we going to get past the situation in which every single time a doctor sees a patient, it is like the whole interaction with the NHS is happening for the very first time?

The hon. Lady makes a very compelling case for the investment that we are putting in to transform digital infrastructure in the NHS, because the single patient record—introduced through the Health Bill that is currently going through Parliament—will enable systems across the NHS to be linked up so that people will no longer have to repeat their stories time and again to different clinicians or people from whom they seek care. It also means that people will have their health records linked up when clinicians decide how to treat them. It is a win-win for patients and for clinicians when they are looking at the opportunities that the new technology provides.