Following Labour’s win of the general election, we examined the party’s plans for the NHS shared within its manifesto and posed a question to our audience: which of Labour’s key areas of focus should take priority for the new government?
To narrow down the manifesto’s focuses, we highlighted four answers to choose from: long-term management condition, investment into technologies such as AI, data and life sciences, and reforming primary care.
The most popular answer by a long margin saw 60 percent of respondents vote that primary care reform should be Labour’s priority, with voters including practice manager, associate director for governance and quality and principal clinical safety officer.
In second place, 22 percent voted that long-term condition management should take priority. Here, we saw votes from roles such as clinical director, deputy chief nurse and innovation consultant.
In third place, investing into technologies such as AI took 17 percent of the vote, with voters including head of digital solutions and device specialist.
Finally, focusing on data and life sciences received just one vote, from a healthcare accounts director role.
The poll also generated comments around the need for investment into digital workforce development before anything else, and the need for further development into AI maturity before it can be well-utilised in the healthcare space.
Which option would you have chosen? Follow HTN on LinkedIn here for the opportunity to share your views in future polls.
Exploring the results: primary care
With primary care the clear priority for our poll respondents, let’s take a look at some of the news in the digital primary care space over recent weeks.
Last week, HTN explored findings from the 2024 GP Patient Survey on patient experience, accessibility, online services and more; read our coverage here.
At the start of the month, we noted a letter from Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England national director for primary care and community services, to GPs and practice managers, aiming to clarify information around enhancements to the GP Connect Update Record. Earlier in the year we covered another letter proposing plans to test new ways of working to ‘optimise the general practice operating model’ across urgent and proactive care services and further deliver on the Fuller Stocktake vision.
We explored some stats released by NHS England on the number of GP appointments delivered by video or using online means, highlighting an increasing trend from last year.
Additionally, HTN interviewed Helen Atherton, professor in primary care research at the University of Southampton, to learn about the projects she has been involved in within digital primary care, where she believes digital options can offer the most value in this area, future directions and more.
And on a final note, we are hosting a virtual panel discussion on innovation in primary care on 7 August (10am) – find out more and register for your free NHS ticket here.
