Data saves lives. Yet at least one in ten trusts in the NHS in England operate on ‘paper-based’ systems. This is likely to be inhibiting staff – who can only do their best when they have the right information to provide the best possible care. In this panel event, we will consider the opportunity to modernise IT infrastructure and data architecture across the NHS estate, the potential for this to tackle our big challenges; from the backlog to health inequalities, and considering the opportunities created by the Government’s commitment to build 48 new hospitals by 2030. This event follows the Wolfson Economics Prize 2021, hosted in partnership with Policy Exchange, which invited radical new proposals for hospital planning and design.

Policy Exchange hosted a panel discussion that considered the modernisation of IT infrastructure and data architecture across the current and future NHS estate. The panel comprised Sarah Thomas, Digital Director of the New Hospital Programme, Dr Tim Ferris, Director of Transformation at NHS England and Dr Tom Hughes OBE, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.  The event was covered in the Health Service Journal.