Government Long-Term Plan for the NHS promises to integrate patient records and bring AI to clinicians

Wearables, AI and instant access to patient records anywhere across the NHS all promised in ten-year plan

The government has claimed that new digital technologies will help generate savings of more than £700 million across the NHS.

The unspecified technologies will be introduced as part of Prime Minister Theresa May's NHS Long Term Plan.

"[The NHS] needs to transform services and exploit opportunities provided by new technologies," May said in a speech today.

She continued: "NHS leaders told us that making the necessary changes in technology, workforce and infrastructure will take time and careful planning. That's why last year - in its 70th year - I committed to an ambitious funding proposal to help make the NHS fit for the future.

"Not a one-off injection of cash. Not money to plug a gap or shore up a problem - but funding to protect the long-term future of the NHS."

May added that she "wanted to see the NHS make greater use of technology, not only to make healthcare safer and more effective - but to make the most of exciting new possibilities and give you greater control over your own care. That means everything from being able to monitor conditions from the comfort of your home, to accessing your GP via your smartphone."

She said that the new technologies would be introduced as part of a 10-year plan, with Baroness Dido Harding, the former CEO of internet service provider (ISP) TalkTalk played a key part in aspects of that plan.

An entire chapter of a report, the Long-Term Plan, is dedicated to ‘digitally enabled care'.

"The way we deliver care remains locked into the service model largely created when the NHS was founded in 1948," claimed the report. "Technology will play a central role in realising the Long Term Plan, helping clinicians use the full range of their skills, reducing bureaucracy, stimulating research and enabling service transformation."

Technology will give people "more control over the care they receive and more support to manage their health, to keep themselves well and better manage their conditions, while assisting carers in their vital work".

First, the aim of digital services will be to integrate the various disparate elements of the NHS, with senior clinicians supported by a range of digital tools. This will include the ability to access patient records more easily - which remains a challenge despite the £12 billion sunk into the National Plan for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS.

The report continues: "When ill, people will be increasingly cared for in their own home, with the option for their physiology to be effortlessly monitored by wearable devices. People will be helped to stay well, to recognise important symptoms early, and to manage their own health, guided by digital tools."

The report - which is long on buzzwords and short on substance - also referenced the use of artificial intelligence to aid decision-support, the use of predictive tools to support the development of local health services, and linking genomic "and other data" to support the development of new treatments.