Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the October 2018 policy paper, The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care, what assessment his Department has made of the level of technical fluency of leaders in the NHS; and what steps he plans to take to recruit leaders with the technical fluency needed to be a competent customer.

To fulfil our vision, we need the right skills and capability at every level of the National Health Service, social care and across the system and this needs to be driven by leaders at every level.

We want all health and care organisations to ensure leaders at board-level understand how data and technology drives their services and strategies and take responsibility for the digital maturity of their organisations. We also recognise the need to develop the new generation of digital leaders who can drive the information and technology transformation of the NHS.

We will build on Health Education England’s work to develop the capabilities of staff and leaders in health and care to be digital-ready through initiatives such as the NHS Digital Academy, which was set up in 2017 to develop strong digital leaders who are capable of delivering change so that patient care, and the way that organisations operate, can benefit from the many improvements and innovations that modern technology has to offer.

Dr Eric Topol is leading a review to assess what training and skills clinical staff will need to make the best use of artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and digital medicine.