Digitising the NHS and adult social care will take an estimated £21bn over the next five years, according to research by the Health Foundation.
The research looked at what investment was needed to achieve existing ambitions for digitisation, including electronic patient records infrastructure, cloud storage, cyber security and wifi.
It found that £8bn was needed in capital spending, £5bn of that on England alone, for hardware and software. An additional £3bn was needed for planning, education and training, and the transition from old systems.
The report also recommended a recurring £2bn in annual revenue spending for ongoing training, software subscriptions and maintenance.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said in December 2024 that the shift from analogue to digital is the one thing that will make a ‘demonstrable improvement’ to the NHS.
In the autumn budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves granted the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) an extra £22.6bn for day-to-day spending over the next two years, including a £3.1bn increase in capital investment for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners.
However, the Darzi review published in November 2024 suggested there was a £37bn shortfall in capital investment.
The Health Foundation report said the development of the 10-year plan, the Casey Commission into social care and the 2025 spending review, which is due in June, all provide ‘a significant opportunity’ to address these challenges.
Director of innovation and improvement at the Health Foundation, Dr Malte Gerhold, said: ‘Ministers have repeatedly stressed the need for health and care services to move from analogue to digital. Our independently commissioned research finds that to achieve the government’s ambitions to digitise health and social care, significant spending will be needed over the next 5 years and beyond.
‘But direct investment in technology alone is not sufficient. The government must fund the change not just the tech. This means investing in and planning for implementation and change to genuinely realise the benefits of digitisation for patients and staff.’
Responding to the report, Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘The NHS has long needed research to understand the true cost of digitisation, which is part of the government’s three shifts. We have called for sustained funding to replace, upgrade and maintain essential digital and IT infrastructure as well as vital estates upgrades, of which digital infrastructure is fundamental.
‘What is now clear from this new research are the ongoing high costs associated with this as modern digital infrastructure continues to evolve, and the need for a process of revenue funding for the NHS to achieve a fully digitised healthcare system.
‘That is why we have been urging the government to use the upcoming Spending Review to continue to invest more capital in digital transformation. For a digital infrastructure to be implemented, digital pathways need both revenue and capital funding to improve healthcare outcomes for patients and make it easier for them to access healthcare.’
