Highlights from the 2024 Healthcare Trends Report

by Health and Care, Advanced Public Sector

If you’ve yet to find time to read our 2024 Healthcare Trends Report, we’ve put together this article with some of the top highlights to give you an understanding of what has been happening in the healthcare space over the past year.

The data for the 2024 Healthcare Report is based on responses from 560 professionals working in the NHS/Health/Care Provider sectors, and 449 healthcare professionals.

Advanced’s annual Trends Report looks at the ways in which technology is transforming organisations across the UK. Technology is now an intrinsic part of any healthcare organisation, and we want to keep track of how these technologies are being used to deal with the challenges that healthcare professionals come up against every day.

Staff attraction and retention

Attracting and keeping staff members continues to be a challenge for healthcare organisations this year, and it doesn’t look like this will change any time soon. Here are some of the top take-aways from the trends report surrounding staff attrition.

• Only 6% of healthcare organisations reported having no staffing issues.
• 60% of healthcare professionals say attracting and hiring enough appropriately qualified people is the number one staffing challenge this year.
• 34% say implementing more effective hiring and screening processes is a challenge.
• 17% have issues with their current hiring and employee management technology.

Aside from attracting new staff, the other issue is retaining existing experienced staff members. Our survey reveals the main retention challenges that are affecting the sector now. ?

• 58% said that retaining staff who are leaving the sector for less demanding work is the number one retention challenge.
• 45% said there is an issue providing sufficient promotion opportunities to retain the best staff.
• 38% of respondents said implementing an effective performance management process is an issue.
• 27% identify the challenge of retaining older, experienced staff, who are seeking to retire early or reduce hours.

Building a workforce pipeline

Like most people, those who are seeking a job in the healthcare sector are looking for decent pay rates, but other factors, such as career development opportunities and feeling valued by their employer are also important factors.

Tackling employee attraction and retention challenges requires identifying and helping to overcome some of the current employment issues that staff face.

• 46% of staff are saying there is not enough basic pay.
• 35% say a lack of promotions and other career development opportunities is an issue.
• 35% say it is lack of training and further qualification opportunities.

As well as pay, application and career opportunities, another issue for staff is lack of flexibility, as some want to be able to fit their job in with other commitments such as childcare.

• 36% say one of the issues for staff is not having the hours they need to fit in with other commitments.
• 29% say there is too much stress and not enough hours in the day.

Many healthcare staff appear to believe that the recruitment and staffing issues could be solved by more government involvement.

• 60% of healthcare professionals believe that government policy could help alleviate staffing issues by supporting a pay increase for all employees.
• 54% think government should introduce more specific benefits such as tax incentives for healthcare staff.
• 41% believe it should increase pay at entry level and low levels.

Technology in a human space

People within the healthcare space are turning to technology more and more to alleviate some of the pressures they face. Whilst technology can’t solve all the issues the healthcare industry is facing, up to date tech can ease some of the pain points by helping with administration burden. Unfortunately, many healthcare organisations don’t yet have the technology in place to help.

• 21% of respondents say a common challenge for staff is working with outdated technology and processes that take too long.
• 26% say current rostering technology and processes do not enable effective rostering.
• 19% say they want digital tools for faster and more accurate diagnosis.
• 54% of healthcare organisations asked said they have plans to upgrade their digital systems.

Automation and AI

There are a number of benefits healthcare organisations can see from the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation tools, but they remain behind the average when it comes to implementation. AI was a hot topic in many organisations during 2023, with many articles and discussions around the potential benefits and risks that come with these cutting-edge technologies.

• 38% of respondents say they are using automation tools in many areas of non-patient facing processes such as updating records, analysis of patient information for trends, HR processes, finance, and more.
• 25% are now using automation in many areas including patient facing processes such as telephone answering and automated emails.
• 21% are only using automation in some management processes such as HR and finance.

Of these professionals using automation and AI within their organisation:

• 46% say it saves patient time, reducing frustration.
• 44% of respondents say it saves staff time, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks.
• 42% say it helps build useful databases for better future planning and provision.

A significant four in ten healthcare professionals believe automation can help save time for diagnosis and treatment, increasing success rates for better patient outcomes. Looking ahead, AI is expected to play an important role in diagnosing medical conditions.

• 34% believe it will support more accurate diagnosis by medical professionals.
• 35% said AI will improve forecasting and planning, enabling them to provide a more tailored and efficient future service.
• 33% believe AI will drive more effective buying, procurement, and supply chain management, helping reduce and manage spend for greater efficiency.

Growing demands on GPs

General Practices are the first point of medical contact for many patients, providing non-urgent treatment and advice to millions in the UK each year. Recently GPs are facing growing demand and tighter restraints.

We directed some questions directly to GP staff in order to find out what the biggest issues are currently facing General Practices.

• 46% of reception teams struggle to respond to all callers during peak times.
• 46% of reception teams struggle to deal with patient expectations around waiting times for appointments and follow up.
• 43% of GPs said the number one challenge was keeping appointments running to time.
• 30% describe the biggest challenge as balancing management tasks with clinical time.

Whilst we understand there are many challenges that healthcare professionals must face, here at Advanced we’ve been supporting NHS, independent healthcare organisations and care organisations for over 20 years with innovative software that helps manage workflows, reduce costs and improve patient safety, and we plan to keep working together to make technology in healthcare as accessible and beneficial as possible. ?

For more stats and information on this topic you can read the 2024 Healthcare Trends Report in full by downloading it for free here: https://www.oneadvanced.com/trends-report/sector-trends-reports-2024/.