In a speech at the Labour Party Conference 2024, Wes Streeting called for a tech- and data-driven reform of the NHS, citing “grim” results from the Darzi report and “a decade of underinvestment”, pledging to tackle long waiting lists and create “a digital healthcare service powered by cutting-edge technology”.
Streeting shared progress on employing 1,000 more GPs and sending “teams of top clinicians” into twenty hospitals in areas with the highest numbers of people “off work sick”, which he claims will help “treat more patients and cut waiting lists”.
The Health Secretary’s main focus, however, was on the need for a shift toward preventative care – “from analogue to digital, from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention. Reform is not just possible, it is happening.”
Advances in data and genomics, Streeting said, will lead to healthcare which is more predictive, more preventative, and “more personalised than ever before”, enabled by a universal health service that is “able to share data, partner with innovators, and adopt new technologies at scale”.
“We are in the foothills of a decade of national renewal,” he continued. “The NHS transformed into a Neighbourhood Health Service. A digital healthcare service powered by cutting-edge technology. A preventative health service that helps us stay healthy and out of hospital.”
To read the speech in full, please click here.
Reforming the NHS: key actions, insights, and reflections on the Darzi report
Following Labour’s win in the general election back in July, we published a piece highlighting the key parts of the party’s manifesto, looking specifically to what it outlined around digital and data, including a pledge to harness the power of technology in enhancing diagnostic services, to “reform” the primary care system by delivering a “modern appointment booking system to end the 8am scramble”, and more.
We also looked at an think tank Policy Exchange’s report outlining how “ruthless prioritisation of policy will be needed” from new health secretary Wes Streeting to provide clarity and confidence in Labour’s plans to reform the NHS, and identifying five key areas deemed “mission critical” where progress should be demonstrated in the government’s first 100 days.
In a LinkedIn poll, we asked our audience which of Labour’s key areas of focus should take priority for the new government, highlighting four answers to choose from: long-term management condition, investment into technologies such as AI, data and life sciences, and reforming primary care.
After the publication of Lord Darzi’s report on the state of the NHS, we picked out the key messages around digital and data, including the “missed opportunity” of the last decade to prepare the NHS for the future by embracing technology and its ability to support a pivot from a ‘diagnose and treat’ model to one focused on prediction and prevention.
Earlier this month, we published comments and reactions from a range of stakeholders from across the health and technology sector on the report’s findings, the “missed opportunities” Lord Darzi highlights from analysis of the past ten years, and a look ahead to the ways technology can help secure the future of the NHS.
Digital and tech in supporting the move from reactive to proactive care
Last month, we were joined by Louise Croxall, chief nursing information officer for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, who reflected on opportunities for increased collaboration around data sharing. “I think if everybody came together we could really focus on preventative health and tackling inequalities,” Louise said, “and bringing everyone’s data into play would be really useful in terms of drilling down and exploring why inequalities exist and what we can do about them”.
The publication of Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn’s 2024- 2030 strategy in mid-September discussed plans to become a digitally-enabled and data-driven organisation, with the trust also committing to taking a thematic review of patient safety incidents related to data errors to identify trends and look to implement preventative measures.
