Ombudsman Rob Behrens comments on today's report from the Health and Social Care Committee's expert panel on the progress of the digitalisation of the NHS.
"We called for improvements to NHS digital infrastructure to be treated as an urgent issue of patient safety after analysis of our casework showed system-wide failings relating to scans and x-rays. In some cases, failings led to unnecessary loss of life. It is disappointing to hear the NHS’s digital transformation is not progressing as it needs to. Our work shows how essential digitalisation is and we welcome the expert panel’s scrutiny of this vital transformation.
"We have provided evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s broader inquiry into NHS digitalisation and hope our insight will be used to accelerate the improvements the NHS so desperately needs."