ORCHA insights inform Policy Exchange report

Today, Policy Exchange released a report, ‘At Your Service: A proposal to reform general practice and enable digital healthcare at scale’. Featuring a foreword by Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the report takes a deep dive into the fragmentation and reimbursement challenges in general practice, proposing the need for digital transformation at scale.

The report highlights that ‘General practice should be the foundational layer for scaling digital healthcare in the NHS. Technologies to ‘transform’ healthcare are at our fingertips (from mobile apps to connected devices and telemedicine platforms which assist in the delivery of healthcare, or to act as medical devices in their own right). […] Yet substantial effort is still required to create an enabling infrastructure.’

In the report, Policy Exchange suggests that, ‘At a national level, legislation is one lever through which the Government can enhance the existing infrastructure and we recommend the Government explores bringing forward a Digital Health and Care Bill.’

Having been interviewed by Policy Exchange and acknowledged in the report, Liz Ashall-Payne, ORCHA’s Founding CEO, contributed insights into the need to enable the integration of digital health with NHS infrastructure, and the possible solutions.

ORCHA welcomes the report, as we continue our work to deliver safe digital health to the NHS and health systems around the world. Part of this work includes the upcoming launch of ORCHA’s Digital Health Academy, the UK’s first digital health training academy, which will offer straightforward, free and CPD-accredited training to every single frontline worker in the NHS and social care.

The full Policy Exchange report, ‘At Your Service’, can be accessed here.

The ORCHA Digital Health Academy will be available on the Health Education England Learning Hub (learninghub.nhs.uk) and at orcha-academy.com from late March.