Streeting banks on tech to help save NHS

Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are promised to give patients unprecedented control over their care.

- Denis Campbell

A dramatic expansion in the role of the NHS app will result in fewer staff than expected by 2035, with the health secretary banking on digital efficiencies to reduce the number of frontline workers, a move described as a "large bet" by health experts.

Patients will be able to use the digital tool to self-refer, book appointments with clinicians, receive advice from an AI GP and see their medical records. "The NHS app will become a doctor in your pocket, bringing our health service into the 21st century," Streeting said as he launched the government's much-trailed 10-year plan.

Highlighting that those who used private healthcare could already get instant advice, remote consultations with a doctor and choice over their appointments, he promised that "our reforms will bring those services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay".

The plan is intended to transform the NHS in England into a more patient-focused service that keeps people healthier and out of hospital by providing care faster, digitally and close to their homes.

However, while experts welcomed the plan's ambitions, they said staff shortages, the NHS's fragile finances and failure to set out how delivery of its many goals would be achieved raised serious doubts over how soon changes would be implemented.