The UK’s newly formed Labour government has faced a critical month in addressing the nation’s healthcare challenges. On 12 September, Lord Darzi’s National Health Service (NHS) report starkly warned that the NHS is in serious trouble, a sentiment echoed by Health Secretary Wes Streeting during his address at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
With healthcare reform at the forefront of national debate, the question of how this government can transform the system took centre stage during a panel discussion at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) 2024 conference in London, UK, on 25 September.
From the use of AI to drive advancements in precision medicine and personalised treatment, to the critical need for scaling up new technologies, all eyes are on the Labour government’s proposed “ten-year plan” for the NHS. This plan is expected to outline the government's approach to addressing the growing challenges within the healthcare system.
Cancer care
Cancer surgeon Lord Darzi highlighted in his independent report that the UK has higher cancer mortality rates compared to other countries. He said that whilst more than 35,000 genomic tests are being completed each month, only around 60% of them are on time.
Streeting highlighted the importance of preventative care, precision medicine, and personalised treatment at the conference in Liverpool. “Advances in genomics and data mean the healthcare of the future will be more predictive, more preventative, and more personalised than ever before. Detecting from birth a child’s risk of disease so we can act to keep them well; spotting cancer earlier, saving countless lives; treating patients with targeted medicines.”
At HETT 2024, the panel discussed the potential to use AI and data to track and trend individuals over time in order to predict and prevent health issues.
“You can take a heel prick at birth; within an hour we can have your DNA and start working and predicting things from you then. I'm really interested in preventing so that's what artificial intelligence has potential to do. Take the load away,” explained Shane Tickell, CEO of health tech consulting company Temple Black.
Adopting new technologies
The HETT panel emphasised the importance of scaling and adopting new technologies such as AI. Tickell discussed the challenges around interoperability and the length of decision-making processes hindering progress.
“If we remain open to change and curious about what works and not just protect our own places, then the single fastest thing to any kind of adoption is openness, curiosity, and having a culture of not saying no straight away,” said Tickell.
Matthew Evans, chief operations officer and director of Markets techUK, said that the issue isn’t necessarily with the market itself, but rather with the willingness and openness of healthcare organisations to take risks and adopt new technologies.
“I don’t really think it’s a market problem. It is a problem of how we partner and how we integrate. How can a customer have that curiosity, have that openness, have that willingness to take the risk – which often it likely is a risk,” said Evans.
The ten-year health plan
The country awaits details of a “ten-year health plan” to get the NHS back on track. Lord Darzi set out the major themes for the plan in his independent report, which includes a tilt towards technology to unlock productivity. Darzi wrote that there is enormous potential for AI to transform care and for life sciences breakthroughs to create new treatments.
Evans said that the one thing the government can do to transform health and care in the UK is to deliver the ten-year plan and to stick to it: “Now it needs to be striving that forward, providing that leadership so you can enable momentum, and that you have the right budget aligned with the challenges.”
Tickell emphasised that whilst the ten-year plan is important, it should be reviewed every year to see what is working, and what needs to be changed: “Don't stick to the ten-year plan but have one and then update it every year. Have ten years as a vision and keep going for ten years, with an eye on 25 years.”
