NHS restructuring risks stalling digital innovation, warns King’s Fund

NHS restructuring is undermining the health service’s capacity to adopt digital innovation, a think tank has warned, leaving suppliers unsure who to deal with.

NHS restructuring is undermining the health service’s capacity to adopt digital innovation, leaving suppliers unsure who they should be dealing with as integrated care boards (ICBs) change, a think tank has warned.

Speaking at the Health Tech Alliance’s 10th anniversary event, a senior health policy figure said the NHS was entering a period of unprecedented policy alignment around digital transformation, but organisational upheaval threatened to undermine that progress.

The comments matter to health tech suppliers and NHS digital leaders because they point to a structural barrier to technology adoption just as government policy is pushing harder on digital transformation. If NHS staff cannot say with confidence who holds budgets, capacity or decision-making authority, contracts and deployments already in train risk being delayed or paused while local structures are redrawn.

Capacity in doubt

The warning came from Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, the independent health and social care think tank. The plan includes proposals for how technology will improve IT, but historically announcements on NHS tech have been big on promise but lacking in delivery as money has been diverted to other areas.

On the effect of the current reorganisation, Woolnough said: “One of my concerns would be that some of the infrastructure, some of the capacity NHS side is certainly uncertain or it’s being diminished because of the restructure.”

She added that she regularly hears from people within the health tech sector who are unclear on which NHS contacts they should be working with as ICBs, the bodies responsible for planning and buying health services in each area, are reorganised.

A pattern of upheaval

The King’s Fund has previously flagged the scale of the changes under way. The government has outlined plans to introduce legislation to reform how the NHS is led and managed in the form of an NHS Modernisation Bill, representing one of the most significant NHS restructures in recent years, with potentially far-reaching implications for how care is delivered, managed and held accountable.

The think tank has also raised concerns about the level of technology investment reaching the front line. Woolnough has previously said that £300 million announced for investment in technology is welcome in showing the government’s focus on improving efficiency, but in the context of a previously announced £10bn over three years in investment in the area it is a relatively small sum.

What happens next

The Health Tech Alliance, a coalition of digital health suppliers, has previously said it welcomes the direction of government policy on digital transformation while pressing for clarity on funding and delivery. For suppliers, the immediate practical concern is whether restructuring will disrupt existing contracts and procurement conversations while new ICB structures bed in, and whether NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will set out clear interim contacts for industry during the transition.