In the first research of its kind, the Health Foundation estimates that significant spending will be needed over the next five years. 

Digitising NHS and adult social care services across the UK will require an estimated £21 billion over the next five years, according to research published by the Health Foundation. This is the first evidence-based attempt to provide such an estimate.

The independent charity commissioned PA Consulting to assess the investment needed to achieve existing ambitions for digitisation. These include putting in place infrastructure, such as electronic patient records, cloud storage, cyber security and Wi-Fi, along with the skills and capabilities to use it effectively.

“Ministers have repeatedly stressed the need for health and care services to move from analogue to digital,” warned Malte Gerhold, director of innovation and improvement at the Health Foundation. 

“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 five years and beyond.”

Understanding the costs

The research estimates that £8 billion in capital spending will be needed for hardware, software, electronic patient records and wider infrastructure; £3 billion in one-off revenue spending for planning, training, and implementation of new technologies; and £2 billion in recurring annual revenue will be needed for ongoing training, software subscriptions, and maintenance. 

Given the costs involved, the Health Foundation has set out three actions for the government to ensure that the NHS and social care services can meet ambitions for digitisation. 

First, it should set a clear, transformative and durable vision for digitisation in health and social care; second, that vision would be supported with the required funding; and a plan needs to be developed to realise the benefits of digitisation.

The report was welcomed by the NHS Confederation. 

“We welcome this new research which emphasises the importance of investment in infrastructure to make the government’s ambition of shifting from analogue to digital a reality in reforming the NHS,” said Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation.  

“The NHS has long needed research to understand the true cost of digitisation,” she added.