By David Williams
20 January 2011
Health services are over-reliant on face-to-face contact and need to make much more use of modern communication technologies, the NHS Confederation says.
In a report released this morning, the confederation, which represents health bodies in England, says the service has not kept pace with the digital age as sectors such as banking or retail have.
The report, Remote control, describes a ‘fundamental contradiction’ in the modern health service. Author Jonty Roland said: ‘Many of the procedures available to patients today were once the subjects of science fiction, yet the structures and systems through which they are delivered still have much in common with a pre-industrial handicraft industry.’
Roland argues that development of digital technology has been ‘stifled’ by false assumptions about what patients want, and that a growing demand for web-based services, particularly among younger generations, is being ignored.
His report criticised the reliance on paper records, hand-written prescriptions and one-to-one contact, and proposes a ‘multi-channel NHS’ that would allow patients to access services remotely.
Wider adoption of communications technology would enable many patients to manage their conditions themselves and become more involved in decisions about their care, the study says.
Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘The NHS, like any other sector of the economy, has to keep up with developments in technologies.
‘In doing so, there is an opportunity to both improve care, and make sure resources are better focused when face-to-face care is the only way forward.’
He said that despite evidence from pilot studies that patients could receive better, highly specialised care in their homes via the internet, such technologies are ‘rarely taken up’.
Edwards claimed the most important barrier to adoption of new technologies was ‘the cultural barrier that people working in the NHS and patients have’. He added: ‘It simply cannot be sustainable in the health service of the future for skilled NHS staff to continue to send on referral letters using second class post,’ he added.
The service’s over-reliance on face-to-face contact was underlined yesterday when data released by the NHS Information Centre showed that two-fifths of admissions to accident and emergency units did not need medical attention.
The figures showed that, in 2009/10, 3.9 million patients left A&E having only been given advice or guidance. A further 1.2 million required neither advice nor treatment.
