Analogue to Digital? A well placed strategy or too little too late?

In July 2025, the NHS released the 10 Year Health Plan for England — Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. An ambitious 171 page monolith built around 3 key shifts in how the NHS is going to work. I’m slightly biassed when I say this, but the move from analogue to digital feels most relevant in today’s world, but also, a tiny bit late??

Why is the NHS always one of the last organisations in this country to embrace the digital revolution? Well, it isn’t… Electronic patient record (EPR) systems have been around in one form or another for over 30 years. GP’s had EMIS as far back as the 1980’s, hospitals came on board later when they started to introduce Patient Administrative Systems — PAS. These were key milestones in keeping healthcare providers aligned with the pace in which IT was being incorporated in every day work.

But that landscape moves quickly. In 2003 the ‘NHS National Programme for IT — NPfIT’ was launched, an inspiring program aimed at harnessing the power of IT to digitise and transform the NHS. Over 20 years old and still we’re banging the same drum — “none of the changes are likely to be as sweeping, as important, or as challenging as creating a fully digitised NHS.” Well they weren’t wrong! The project was eventually scrapped at a cost of more than £10 billion, more than double what they had initially committed. We see this approach so often in the NHS — those at the top make sweeping claims and propose grandiose changes only to realise 12 months later that those most affected by the change were never consulted in the first place.

We must build our digital strategy from the bottom up, and by bottom I mean those staff who see the day to day impact of what that strategy means. I hate the terms ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ in an organisation, as if somehow those at the “top” know best — is this really true?? I’ve seen myself how directives, with all good intentions, fail when it comes to putting them into practice. If only we spent a bit more time consulting staff from ALL levels of the organisation, rather than developing fancy slide packs and holding meeting after meeting explaining the “strategy”…

I am hopeful nevertheless. Information Technology moves fast, let’s try to keep up!!