8OCTOBER 2024TECH OUTLOOKIN MY OPINIONBy Justin Beardsmore, Chief Technology Officer, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS TrustNAVIGATING HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION IN A ONE-TERM GOVERNMENTJustin Beardsmore is a seasoned healthcare technology leader based in London, currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. With over seven years in this role, he specializes in strategy, transformation, and operations within large acute and local health economies. Justin collaborates closely with the CIO, providing strategic oversight, and ensuring that IT technology aligns with innovative care delivery approaches. His expertise bridges gaps between the Trust and regional partners, enabling fully integrated healthcare services.Through this article, Justin points out that the shift in England's digital health leadership from blue to red signals a need for strategic focus in a challenging environment.England's digital health and social care leadership has changed from blue to red for the first time in ten years. Health and social care are devolved to the five nations for those unfamiliar. The ministerial runners and riders have also been appointed, along with their advisors. Some are new, some are from the Blair years, but all have a wealth of healthcare policy experience. In its second term, the previous incarnation leveraged the economic boom to reduce waiting times and improve the building estate within fiscal constraints. They squeezed the pits. This government has no boom and the same waiting list problem but with a broader society stagnation problem. However, like the first, they have inherited a crumping hospital estate and a hospital-centric system. They, however, may not have the luxury of two terms, as the British voting public is more transactional in its voting habits.Amidst the era of AI and the determinism of West Coast tech Bro, the question arises: where do the priorities lie, and what is the role of Digital? Paul Johnson, the go-to figure for independent public economic thinking, asserts, `It is beyond the reach of a healthcare service to close the gap in our healthcare inequalities'. The NHS alone cannot solve the growing demand, so digitally empowering the NHS will have limitations. The think-thank AI Evangelists, who predict £25 billion in public sector savings in five years, are focused on high transactional central government processes, not the cottage industry of healthcare.
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