Top 10 NHS IT stories of 2024

1. Labour’s 10-year health service plan will open up data sharing

As part of its plans to fix the NHS, the labour government announced plans for a 10-year transformation project, with a strong focus on embracing technology.

The government wants to enable NHS IT systems to share data more easily, introduce laws to make digital patient health records available across NHS organisations and improve use of the NHS App.

This is not the first time such promises have been made, so it remains to be seen whether the new government will put its money where its mouth is.

2. NHS services at major London hospitals disrupted by cyber attack

While cyber attacks are becoming a regular part of life these days, it is rare that it has such an impact as the Qilin ransomware gang’s cyber attack at health service laboratory partner Synnovis, which severely disrupted NHS services across South London in June.

Two of the NHS trusts most heavily affected by the cyber attack, had to cancel more than 6000 appointments in the weeks following the attack.

It also led to the ransomware gang publishing sensitive NHS data online, extracted from the Synnovis system, and experts warned that ageing IT equipment and infrastructure is leaving the NHS dangerously exposed to more damaging cyber breaches and incidents such as this one.

3. Keir Starmer vows to create a ‘digital NHS’ following damning Darzi review

In September, a rapid review of the NHS by Lord Darzi, conducted over nine weeks, found an NHS in crisis. While most sectors have been transformed by digital technologies over the past decade, Darzi found the NHS “is in the foothills of digital transformation” and called for a major tilt towards technology in the NHS.

Immediately following the review, prime minister Keir Starmer vowed to perform “major surgery” on the NHS, moving from an analogue to a digital NHS, and promising big changes in the way the health service is run.

4. GP digital tools could cause patients harm, says report

According to a report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), some digital tools used by GPs can cause patients harm.

The report by the arms-length body of the Department for Health and Social Care, came after an investigation due to concerns raised by patients and staff.

The report found limited serious incidents that had been reported, and while researchers described how safety incidents are rare, they also said that safety-related evidence on remote and online consultations is inadequate.

5. Life sciences, medtech and the NHS must marry, says health secretary

Fresh into government as its new health secretary, Wes Streeting announced he wants to transform the NHS into a health service that drives innovation. The NHS has gone through five health secretaries in the last three years, and the instability has led to a health service that lacks direction, Streeting said.

“If we can marry the health and social care system with the incredible life science and medtech ecosystem we have in this country, we can be a powerhouse for the life sciences and medtech revolution in this country and the world,” said Streeting

6. NHS experts raise warning over patient data breach risk in registries project

In June, a group of NHS clinicians responsible for registries holding health information on millions of patients warned of the risk of a major data breach through an NHS England project they claim has neglected basic IT security measures.

The programme to set up an Outcome Registries Platform (ORP) has received little attention outside the NHS, but once complete, it will see over 30 clinical registries comprising disparate highly sensitive, special category datasets that currently are held separately, moved into a single centralised repository, with the aim of improving patient care.

However, the Federation of Clinical Registries (FCR), raised concerns that the ORP was accessible via the public-facing internet, fearing it could be susceptible to cyber attacks. 

7. NHS Federated Data Platform celebrates first birthday

The controversial NHS Federated Data Platform celebrated its first birthday earlier this year, and has now been rolled out to more than 100 NHS organisation.

The platform, which has created controversy since its inception, due to a consortium led by American data analytics firm Palantir winning the contract, aims to collate data stored in multiple different systems, making it easier for staff to find the information they need.

While NHS England is not mandating the use of the platform, it has paid for licences for all NHS organisations to use it over the next seven years, and have asked them to provide plans for how they will maximise its use within two years.

8. Tony Blair Institute calls for creation of NHS Data Trust

In January, former prime minister Tony Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blaid Insititute floated the idea of the NHS to create a public-private partnership in the form of an NHS Data Trust.

The idea was mentioned in a report by Blair an and former Conservative Party leader William Hague, who called for a new approach to using healthcare data to support medical breakthroughs, harnessing the masses of anonymous patient data held by the NHS.

According to the report, the data trust would be “owned and controlled by the NHS in collaboration with trusted external partners” and would “treat NHS data as a competitive asset whose value can be realised for the benefit of the public”.

9. Liverpool to get AI hub for health and social care

The £4.9m in funding University of Liverpool’s Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL) and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust received for an AI project, might not be a huge amount.

But the project itself, aiming to use an AI platform to make better decisions for patients, shows a change in direction for the NHS.

The plan is to harness AI enabled decision intelligence technology, connecting several data sources into a trusted data foundation which looks to equip researchers, care teams and patients to access, co-create and benefit from research into mental health. The aim is to be able to develop better drug and digital therapies, as well as co-ordinating care services.

10. Global Microsoft outage hits NHS GP IT system

A global Microsoft outage led to significant disruption to NHS services in July. The outage affected the Emis Web GP IT system, leading to NHS GP practices across the UK being unable to access patient notes, appointment bookings and prescription management.

The Emis system is by far the most popular system among UK GPs, being used by 58% of GP practices in the country. This meant many practices found themselves having to turn away patients, and patients were unable to get through to their GP.

The IT issues were caused by a security update by security firm CrowdStrike’s Falcon service to Microsoft software, which caused an outage in a number of Microsoft products worldwide.