Posted by:
Kannan Jayaraman
Publish Date:
9 Jun, 2022
The pandemic has necessitated a seismic shift in digitising the healthcare systems in the UK and around the world. According to a report by *TechMarketView, the growth in the UK Health software and IT services (SITS) market was valued at £2.13bn in 2020 and has since seen a significant increase of 11% every year since.
Solutions for contact tracing, testing, vaccination, and remote working facilities were some of the key sectors that took precedence. In fact, an additional £212m was pumped into the UK Health SITS market in 2020, making it the second-largest public sector SITS market overtaking both Defence and Local & Regional Government.
The healthcare sector has not been able to ignore the positive impact of this digitalisation, and the reluctance to veer away from using traditional heritage technology has decreased. Case-in-point, the amount spent on new technologies — cloud, platform, digital, and cyber — in 2020 was £669m, and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for new SITS is slated to be around 17.4% between 2020-24. It is predicted that the amount spent on new technology will increase by approximately 20% by 2024 — in 2020, it was 31%, and by 2024 it will hit around 51% — and will rake in a whopping £1.3bn.
Some of the Health SITS activities — Operations, Software, Solutions and Consulting — that have been prioritised lately are:
- COVID-19 Test and Trace delivery services that include websites, mobile applications etc.
- Digital solutions to collate immunisation information as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme
- Video consultation platforms
- Data security services
- Interpretation and translation services
- Appointment and scheduling software
- Solutions to keep on top of staffing requirements
- Electronic patient records (EPR) systems
This digital transformation aims to reduce the burden on the overburdened healthcare system and mitigate the impact of the pandemic. While those ailing from the virus were and still are being given priority, there is an urgent need to resume caring for patients whose ailments were deemed elective at the helm of the pandemic. Plus, the rise in mental health-related issues has necessitated a more significant focus on secondary care.
One way to keep on top of the rising demands on the healthcare system is to streamline processes via digitisation. This digital transformation has helped break silos and ensures multi-agency healthcare professionals have access to the most recent and updated patient records that help increase productivity, ensure safety, cut costs, and most importantly, boost patient trust.
Source: *PublicSectorViews – Health - Software and IT Services - Suppliers, Trends and Forecasts 2021-2024