Empowering the NHS: Harnessing Digital Innovation for Future Healthcare

A Response to Lord Darzi’s Review?

Lord Darzi’s recent report provides a stark and honest look at the NHS, spotlighting areas that Totalmobile has consistently advocated for, especially the urgent need for greater digitalisation and shifting more care into the community.

Despite policy intentions, investment has predominantly favoured hospitals, leaving community services under-funded and overwhelmed.

Digital solutions can transform this space—

We’ve seen trusts, who have deployed digitalisation technologies, create capacity for an additional 1.6 visits per community clinician per day, with one trust reporting 350,000 more clinical appointments annually.

?? Shifting Activity into the Community?

A key challenge identified in the report is the poor quality of data in community services, hindering performance assessment and improvement efforts. Embracing digital tools allows community-based trusts to gain the reliable data needed to drive efficiency and improve patient outcomes.

This isn’t just an opportunity; it’s a necessity to enhance service performance and patient care.

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?? Improving Discharge Speeds

The report also highlights critical issues with hospital discharge delays, with many NHS beds occupied by patients awaiting social care placements. Real-time capacity planning tools in social care can significantly speed up discharge processes, relieving pressure on acute settings and improving overall patient flow.

Addressing these bottlenecks is essential for solving broader capacity challenges across the NHS.

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?? Staff Engagement and Wellbeing

A recurring theme in the report is the critical issue of staff engagement and wellbeing. The NHS workforce is experiencing high levels of stress and burnout, contributing to significant absenteeism rates, with health care assistants averaging 24.5 days of absence per year.

To address this, flexible rostering and greater autonomy for staff could play a pivotal role in enhancing job satisfaction and reducing burnout.

Our forthcoming paper, "Balancing the Unbalanced: How Flexible Rostering Can Transform Public Sector," highlights the positive impact of giving key workers greater schedule control on their work-life balance, wellbeing, and retention.

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Summary

Lord Darzi’s report underscores the vast, yet untapped potential of digital transformation across the NHS, especially within community services. The hundreds of thousands of NHS staff working outside hospitals are in urgent need of digital systems that can streamline operations, reduce administrative burdens, and allow them to dedicate more time to patient care.

At Totalmobile, we believe that embracing digitalisation is not just a missed opportunity for the past decade but a necessary step towards a more efficient, effective, and patient-centric NHS. By fully committing to this digital journey, the NHS can unlock new levels of productivity and ensure that care is delivered where it is needed most—in the community.

Chris Hornung, Managing Director of Public Sector, Totalmobile

About the Author: Chris Hornung, Managing Director of Public Sector at Totalmobile. Chris is committed to driving change in this sector, empowering Public Sector organisations to improve the quality and volume of their services, with over 15 years of sector experience.