As the Spectator held its inaugural health summit last week, the fraught issue of NHS funding was once again on the front pages. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, proposed a 10-year funding deal for the NHS. Two days later Theresa May announced there would be a ‘long-term funding plan’. However, while a multibillion pound cash injection may help, this isn’t going to fix the bigger problem: that is, a rapid rise in demand for healthcare, in part because of an ageing population. So what else can be done? Can technology make the NHS more efficient?
The summit’s keynote speech, by health minister Lord O’Shaughnessy, made the case for data as the potential saviour of the NHS. Its patient dataset is unique, he said, as it encompasses all citizens across their lifetime. ‘That is an asset that no other country can bring together.’
The Government, he explained, is seeking to set up five regional data hubs that would gather patient information from every setting.
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