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Focusing on digital technology can be a key enabler to help deliver the unrealised ambition of moving care closer to home and help the new government achieve its vision of a ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’, finds a new independent report by The King’s Fund, commissioned by Nourish.

The authors conclude that bolstering digital technologies in GPs, pharmacies, community trusts and care providers can help reduce the number of people needing to access already over-stretched hospitals. They can also improve patient experience and outcomes, and help people with ongoing care needs to live independent and full lives.

The report, which draws on a roundtable with national stakeholders and expert research, finds that community providers are all too often at the back of the queue when it comes to accessing the funding they need to digitally transform and improve services for their patients. This exacerbates the huge variation in digital tools available to staff and patients.

Some integrated care systems are trying to overcome digital challenges, such as improving interoperability – where health and care information is accessible across multiple organisations – by creating additional systems that link up all electronic records where they can.

The researchers also report that people and patients’ experiences of using digital technology for their health and care needs are variable. Some integrated care systems are working to tailor services to the individual, starting with people’s existing digital skills and building from there. This might mean some people have an app on their phone; for others, a better option might be a tablet acting as a display for simple notifications. 

However, many digital technologies in community settings are built with hospitals in mind, which can lead to staff frustrations that the kit does not always cater for their more mobile way of working across large areas. District nurses who often work in people's homes told the report authors about their struggles connecting to the internet, poor battery life and heavy laptops. Many NHS staff find that electronic records software can interrupt workflows, and staff are often left to duplicate tasks across different systems. To avoid this inefficiency, The King’s Fund concludes that NHS and social care staff in the community should be involved in developing or selecting systems that will work best for them.

Pritesh Mistry, Fellow in Digital Technologies at The King’s Fund, said:

'The new government has come to power with an exciting pledge to refocus the NHS towards primary and community care. Thoughtful adoption of digital technology in community settings will be key to achieving this goal.

'Underinvestment in digital technology in community settings has been holding back improvements to care and is frustrating staff and patients alike. As the country’s population ages and expectations around how to access health care services change, investment in these areas has become increasingly necessary, not optional.

'An initial step includes setting a national vision to guide local decisions, co-created with people and staff. This needs to be underpinned by boosted funding for innovation in community settings, and staff being given the time to develop the digital skills they need to embed improvements to digital systems.'

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