Data suggests patient-led digital adoption has been sustained

New data from patient engagement experts reveals that the greatly increased levels of patient-led digital adoption during the pandemic have been sustained.

This suggests a change in attitudes towards digitally enabled healthcare across the country, with the North of England continuing to adopt at an accelerated rate. The data, which comes from DrDoctor, is sampled from more than 10 million patients from 36 NHS trusts across the UK.

The data shows the level of engagement with care coordination tools, including scheduling appointments, digital letters, appointment reminders and video consultations. It reveals that patient engagement across the platform has increased by 937% during the period from March 2020 to September 2021, signalling a wider acceptance of patients using technology to manage their care.

Most noticeably, the number of patients choosing to view their appointment letters through the online portal has increased by 383% from March 2020 to September 2021. The largest peak in adoption occurred in June 2021, long after the third lockdown had eased in England.

In the North of England, this behavioural trend is most demonstrable. From May to September 2021, the number of patients choosing to reschedule appointments using digital tools increased by 62% in the North, whereas in the South the increase was only 23%.

According to Graham Walsh, the North now has a strong digital foothold and is accelerating their digital adoption at an impressive rate.

Graham Walsh, chief clinical information officer at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Increased digital investment in the North of England has led to the creation of northern digital powerhouses which may be driving the increased digital adoption across the region. Trusts such as my own are able to be very agile in their response to digital adoption. We have a workforce that has accepted digital and understands the benefits to patients and staff.”

The different regional experiences of the backlog testify that a tailored approach to healthcare needs to be implemented so that the country can effectively recover.

Walsh added: “Moving forward, we all need to be sharing our journeys and success stories so that the NHS as a whole, regardless of geographies or divides, benefits.”

As of September 2021, of the NHS trusts using DrDoctor technology, adoption of video consultation technology continues to be 21% higher in the North compared to the South. This indicates a shift in attitudes towards having care delivered digitally in the region as well.

Dr Paul Dimitri, director of research and innovation and consultant in paediatric endocrinology, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Geographical population distribution is one of the drivers of digital adaptation. For example, the population of Yorkshire and Humber is 5.4 million and the population of London is 8.4 million. However, Yorkshire and the Humber is geographically dispersed and so in the North, the population spread may drive digital change to reach patients.”

As a result of this accelerated uptake, the North has seen a substantial reduction in DNA rates. For example, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has recorded DNA rates as low as 1.08% in anaesthetics.

Tom Whicher, chief executive of DrDoctor, said: “Our behavioural data reveals that patients are choosing to engage with their healthcare providers in digital ways, reiterating the most important point - a digital first NHS shouldn’t be an imposition, but a choice, decided by patients based on them finding it beneficial."

“The uptake in the North is particularly interesting – we know that there are major health inequalities between the North and South but recent data from NHS England has shown that the North is currently the best performing region when it comes to addressing the backlog. The region is providing accessible care to the largest number of patients per population and it’s likely that this is being supported by technology.”