The need to build new skills into the existing and future workforce within health and social care to drive digitisation and wider use of technology has been highlighted by the Council for Science and Technology (CST). A letter sent to the government in June this year, signed by Sir Patrick Vallance and Lord John Browne, Co-Chairs of the CST, references a new report that makes three core recommendations to support changes and improvements to health enabled by data and evidence, and a re-engineering of the health system to support integrated pathways for care and provide better outcomes for patients.
The CST report recognises that a lack of time to train staff to develop the skills and invest in transformational change, as well as lack of support to enable future healthcare leaders to develop the expertise necessary to manage this change, are barriers to widespread adoption and uptake of technologies.
New types of skills and roles will also be necessary, requiring training in new systems and technologies, but also in systems thinking and systems engineering. The CST report points out that there is a lack of systems engineers with experience of healthcare and recommends building capability within the system by supporting existing systems engineering courses, providing specialist healthcare systems training, and equipping health professionals and health system leaders or managers with the skills to manage change and deliver resilient improvement.
The responsibility for this could fall to a new National Centre for Health System Improvement, which the CST suggests is necessary to build capacity and skills for system transformation. The government also needs to give serious consideration to how individuals working within the health service may be allowed the time for the necessary training and professional development in the context of current pressures on the NHS and ongoing staff shortages.
Responding to the letter and report, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said provision and investment in workforce skills is already being made through initiatives led by Health Education England and NHSX, supported by the Academic Health Science Network and NHS England and NHS Improvement rather than through a new, separate body.
