Recommendation 4

We are not confident that the Department is being realistic about the immense effort needed to reduce NHS elective care waiting times, and see a significant risk that digital solutions are being treated as a ‘cure- all’ as the 10 Year Plan is being implemented. While NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care have outlined an ambitious programme for future change, the current picture of performance for transformation is poor. The integration and sharing of digital records across the NHS is a key weakness and the NHS lacks some of the basics in IT connectivity, with General Practitioners, hospital trusts and consultants still working on different systems. With technology moving quickly, the timing and funding of digital change remains uncertain. At the same time, we are sceptical that digital change can satisfactorily reach all patients as there is likely to always be a part of the population who find digital technology and tools too difficult to use. recommendation NHSE and the Department should set out: • how the elective care transformation programmes are practically affected by the ‘analogue to digital’ shift in the 10 Year Plan; • how it will solve the problem of legacy IT equipment and ensure that the IT systems used in different parts of the NHS are properly connected; and • whether the 10 Year Plan itself has sufficient funding to deliver the digital transformation required by the plan.