All is not lost….
The Lord Darzi report is a very accessible read and endlessly quotable. The Summary Letter from Lord Darzi to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care includes 28 hard-hitting paragraphs. It does not pull any punches and is clearly intended to provide an unambiguous status of the condition of the NHS. There is nowhere to hide with this report and the hard work to put right a decade of neglect is now required.
The good news is that…
“The NHS is a wonderful and precious institution. And no matter the challenges it faces, I am convinced it can return to peak performance once again”.
This is not a report that has condemned the NHS and left us with no way forward. It is a no-nonsense report with a very clear view that the NHS can be improved and put back on an even keel. All is not lost.
The NHS Estate
My interests are the digitisation of estates and that means that I am searching the report for recognition of the critical part that technology and estates play in the NHS. What leapt out to me was this statement:
“…. there is a shortfall of £37 billion of capital investment. These missing billions are what would have been invested if the NHS had matched peer countries’ levels of capital investment in the 2010s. That sum could have prevented the backlog maintenance, modernised technology and equipment, and paid for the 40 new hospitals that were promised but which have yet to materialise. It could have rebuilt or refurbished every GP practice in the country.”
This is a stunning assessment of the estate and a clear marker for what needs to be done. It is far from impossible given the capability of the estates and construction industry.
The technology opportunity
“Over the past 15 years, many sectors of the economy have been radically reshaped by digital technologies. Yet the NHS is in the foothills of digital transformation.”
From my experience the potential contribution to be made in estates with digitisation is transformational. However, we need to avoid the historic poor specification, procurement and implementation of technology. There are benefits in sharing knowledge between ICS and NHS Trusts, but I see little to be gained from national solutions (I think the Post Office scandal is enough to prove that). We need to free up the NHS Trusts to seek solutions that work for them and their estate – there is not a one size fits all solution.
Read and contribute
For those too busy to read the whole report I would encourage you to read the Summary Letter. The final paragraph of the Summary Letter says:
“The NHS is now an open book. The issues are laid bare for all to see. And from this shared starting point, I look forward to our collective endeavour to turn it around for the people of this country, and to secure its future for generations to come.”
That means that we can all contribute to improving our NHS.
