The budget and upcoming reform of the NHS could be the start of new era for medical technology - but to harness its potential we need to get spread and adoption right, says Barbara Harpham, Chair of the Medical Technology Group.
MTI Expo
Harpham speaking at MTI Expo 2023
The Chancellor has announced her first budget, injecting 22.6 billion GBP into the day-to-day spending on the NHS while raising capital spending by 3.1 billion GBP. The budget comes amidst a transitory period for the health service. There are signs of recovery, but post pandemic struggles with the backlog and productivity continue.
Alongside this, we are on the eve of the government’s push for reform, as next year could see more substantial plans for both spending and its ten year plan outline a vision for a digital health service built around a preventative, community focused model.
This budget could therefore be just the start of a vitally important era for both the health service and the medical technology sector, which will have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the government makes the best of both spending and reform.
With this comes a growing push to frame investment in the health service as an economic boost. Last year the NHS Confederation outlined the economic benefits of health spending while a recent OBR report outlined that deteriorating public health poses one of the largest long-term risks to public finances. Keeping people fit, healthy, and out of hospital, will be the measure of success for the government’s spending and reform, and ensuring the adoption and implementation of world class medical technology is vital to this goal.
This is something the Medical Technology Group has highlighted previously.
In our Keeping Britain Working report we explained how equitable and timely access to eight technologies alone could generate 476 million GBP in savings per year - money that would in turn pay for 20,000 nurses. Many of these technologies had been commissioned - but their potential was not being realised due to poor patient choice, lack of incentives for uptake leading to a general inequity of access across the health service.
Ensuring the system delivers the right technology to the right patients at the right time is therefore vital for ensuring we get the economic benefits of health spending. At present this is not happening. A review by the Accelerated Access Collaborative found that even innovations with strong evidence of system-wide and patient benefits were not widely used across the NHS.
How can we drive change across the system? The Medical Technology Group has outlined its recommendations for the government, focused at driving a culture of adoption and implementation across the health service. This also means supporting local leaders to make informed decisions. As David Lawson, Director of Medical Technology & Innovation at the Department for Health & Social Care, recently told an HSJ roundtable, it's vital we support trusts with the data, infrastructure, and processes to ensure they procure the best available technology.
The government’s budget and upcoming reforms look like they could herald a promising future for the NHS and the medical technology sector, but the true test will lie in translating investment into widespread, effective adoption of innovation. To harness the full potential of this era, we must foster a culture that prioritises equitable access and the implementation of proven technologies across all NHS settings.
