Recruitment is now underway for key roles at the new Online NHS Trust, seeking “vision, experience and enthusiasm” to help shape the future of healthcare services.
Leadership roles currently being advertised for ahead of the planned launch in 2027 include medical director, chief nurse, chief people officer, and chief financial officer.
“The Online NHS Trust is the NHS’s first national, digital-first Trust that will give people in England the option to receive planned care through the NHS App,” a LinkedIn post from the trust states. “We’re looking for exceptional leaders to help build and lead this new organisation.”
A candidate brief offered for the medical director role shares: “This is a role for a leader motivated by public value, system impact and the opportunity to create something enduring, as well as for someone with a strong focus on digital transformation, innovation and delivering large-scale change.”
For the chief people officer, the trust outlines a “unique opportunity” to shape how it attracts, develops, and supports its workforce, enabling the successful delivery of tech-enabled care at scale.
The chief nurse role is central to developing digitally-enabled clinical services, focused on delivering positive experiences and outcomes for patients with tech-enabled care, it states.
NHS England recently shared that the service will enable triage through the NHS App, to connect patients to specialists anywhere in the country for video consultations, and will allow monitoring at home to prevent unnecessary hospital visits. According to NHSE, it is expected to deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5 million virtual appointments and assessments in its first three years – “four times more than an average NHS trust”.
Some of the conditions the service will focus on initially include women’s health issues such as severe menopause symptoms, endometriosis, and fibroids. Prostate conditions such as prostate enlargement and raised PSA levels will also be covered, as will iron deficiencies and inflammatory bowel disease, along with eye conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
A preliminary market engagement notice published by NHSE earlier this year outlined plans to explore the feasibility of establishing end-t0-end diagnostic testing pathways for the NHS Online virtual hospital service. “Responses will be used solely to improve NHS Online’s understanding of the current market and potential delivery models that could support digitally enabled diagnostic access at scale,” NHSE states.
Wider trend: Virtual and remote care
An “AI nurse” is supporting Barts Health NHS Trust, said to conduct routine check-ins and collect information from patients before handing over to clinical teams. The introduction of the Ovia AI-powered telephone monitoring service is part of the trust’s expansion of its virtual wards and remote monitoring, particularly focusing on patients with heart and lung conditions. It works by calling patients at a pre-agreed time and asking a series of simple questions, rather than requiring patients to use a smartphone app to submit data such as blood pressure readings, which Barts Health reports has previously been a barrier for some patients. Information gathered is then sent directly to clinical teams, allowing for health professionals to “remain fully in control” and step in where needed, the trust shares.
The NHS Transformation Directorate has shared details of the initial pilot of an AI triage tool integrated in the NHS App. The tool, trialled at Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership in Sussex, is said to have reduced phone queue volumes by 29 percent, according to the directorate. It will be rolled out over the next 12 months to more than 200,000 patients in London, before being made available to all NHS App users nationwide by April 2028. It poses questions to patients on their health issues via the app, adapting follow-up questions or asking for further information and photos depending on the response. A summary is then created of patient issues and symptoms, offering assistance for clinicians with diagnosis and prioritisation. Once reviewed by a clinician, patients are contacted by phone or SMS with next steps, it adds.
A total of £11.1 million in funding has been committed to the launch of a wearables and remote monitoring innovation cluster in Greater Manchester; a partnership between Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the NIHR Manchester Health Determinants Research Collaboration. £5,5 million of the funding comes from the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund delivered through UK Research and Innovation, and a further £5.6 million is from commercial partners. The ambition is to help reduce barriers to innovation in wearable and remote health monitoring technologies by developing a simpler process to bring technologies to the market.
