Sonia Patel, chief expertise officer at NHS England, talking at HETT 2025 (Credit score: Jordan Sollof)
The chief expertise officer (CTO) at NHS England has known as for a “stronger digital workforce pipeline” to assist the supply of the ten yr well being plan.
Talking at day two of the Well being Excellence By way of Know-how 2025 convention, in London in October 2025, Sonia Patel mentioned that there not been “a transparent path of journey” throughout her 5 years working at NHSE.
“What we do want is readability round truly what we’re going to ship, how we’re going to ship it, and really the place we have to name on that partnership to assist us ship it,” Patel mentioned.
She known as the event of a mannequin digital blueprint for NHSE, “essentially the most highly effective technique to assist a seismic shift that we’re with the ten yr plan to supply clear signalling from the centre”.
To realize the shift to digital, Patel mentioned that may be a want to maneuver to person-centred structure, digital public infrastructure and a shift to the NHS working mannequin.
“We’ve made nice strides in digitisation by way of EPRs [electronic patient records], by way of work on knowledge platforms and significantly the work that we’ve finished across the NHS App, but it surely’s held up by fragmented approaches.
“So a unified working mannequin balances nationwide consistency with native flexibility and so we need to guarantee we’re clarifying the roles from nationwide, regional to native to make sure funding aligns with requirements,” Patel mentioned.
In dialog with Avi Mehra, affiliate associate and scientific security officer at IBM, Patel spoke in regards to the want for a “stronger digital workforce pipeline” to assist supply of the ten yr well being plan.
She added that NHSE is “actively engaged on the ten yr workforce plan” and should “make a critical dedication” when it comes to the workforce.
“We’re seeing that one in 10 civil servants will likely be digital and knowledge professionals, we are going to want new assets on this area, and it doesn’t imply essentially digital knowledge.
“What we’re going to see is the emergence of hybrid roles.
“We’re seeing digital roles taking place in nature, digital roles taking place in finance, digital roles, as we already are experiencing, with scientific informaticians, in medication and nursing as nicely, so we have to embrace it.
“We have to assist it. We have to encourage it. And we additionally have to put some schooling and skilling up behind it,” Patel mentioned.
She additionally mentioned that NHSE desires “to make sure we’re clarifying roles from nationwide, regional to native to make sure funding aligns with requirements”.
“This implies clearer accountability, coordinated expertise pipelines, and communities of observe that speed up the adoption and supply in line with the digital experiences nationwide,” Patel mentioned.
She highlighted the necessity to transfer away from a “transactional relationship” expertise suppliers to extra of “a partnership round delivering outcomes”.
“I’ve heard loud and clear from trade and the conversations I’ve had with trade, that they need to do extra, they completely do.
“They don’t need to be seen as simply offering the expertise, they need to allow the change,” Patel mentioned.
