Starmer says technology could help transform the NHS

Labor leader Keir Starmer has identified technology as one of three key changes his party will use to transform the health service under a Labor government.

In a speech on Monday in Essex, Starmer said the nature of the disease had changed substantially, requiring immediate and acute hospital care, which required above all the management of chronic, long-term conditions. it occurs.

Starmer identified three main changes that needed to happen for the NHS to remain sustainable. The first involves moving care out of hospitals and closer to the community, he said, adding that the NHS “must become a neighborhood health service.”

The second shift involves moving away from the mindset that health is about disease to put prevention first, including reducing the nation’s three leading killers: heart disease, cancer and suicide.

This change, Starmer insisted, would help to improve healthy life expectancy and reduce the inequality gap between different regions of England. Second shift – We must move from a mindset that sees health as a disease, putting prevention first.

Shift three involves using technology to accelerate the first two shifts and bring about a different kind of healthcare, he said, one that brings shorter wait times, better treatment, quicker diagnosis and meaningful prevention.

“With artificial intelligence, with personalized medicine, with new vaccines, we stand on the cusp of a revolution that could transform healthcare for the better,” he said. “My message today is this – science and technology are transformative. This is what will make the NHS fit for the future.”

putting more power in the hands of patients

Despite being downloaded by 33 million people during the pandemic, Starmer said the NHS app’s extraordinary opportunity has so far been largely wasted.

Labour, whose 2015 manifesto failed to focus on making greater use of IT, will take the app – and innovations like it – and expand them, he said, by putting them in the hands of patients, and building on their relationship with the NHS. Use them to replace . ,

This will include fully digital patient records – appropriate self-referral pathways, reminders to receive check-ups and screenings, the latest guidance on treatment and putting “patients in control of their own data”.

“Choosing how it is used and shared will get rid of the divide between those who are confident to speak for themselves and those who cannot,” Starmer said, noting that Not only does the technology provide more choice and power for patients, but it also has the potential to save lives.

He cited the example of lung cancer where 274,000 patients have been waiting for scan results for 11 days or more.

Artificial intelligence (AI) not only has the potential to reduce workload and increase productivity, but can reduce lung cancer diagnoses by up to 60% when used properly by radiologists.

Starmer concluded: “To do this, innovators don’t need a route into the NHS, incentives to innovate across the system, fewer barriers to adoption, fewer barriers to clear, less bureaucracy, more clinical Testing, and a government that makes full use of its power to turn back our world’s premier life sciences.