Delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan: The Role of Digital Transformation

Founded in 1948, the NHS has long been a cornerstone of British society. Nearly eight decades later, however, growing populations, rising demand and increasing complexity of care have placed the system under unprecedented strain. Severe staff shortages, chronic underfunding, long waiting lists and workforce burnout now present major structural challenges.

Addressing these pressures requires more than incremental reform. It demands a fundamental rethink of patient experience, health innovation, health economics and policy. These kinds of system-level challenges inspired Imperial College London to establish the School of Convergence Science as part of its Science for Humanity strategy — bringing together diverse disciplines to tackle complex global problems.

"Healthcare transformation only happens when organisations and disciplines genuinely work together. It demands ambition, the ability to operate at scale and a sustained commitment to meaningful change.” - Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)

A System at Breaking Point

On 28 January, the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation (CHEPI) co-hosted Delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan: The Role of Digital Transformation with the School of Convergence Science, Health and Technology. More than 200 attendees joined online and in person to explore how digital innovation could reshape the future of healthcare delivery.

The UK is embarking on a bold effort to create a healthcare system fit for the future — one that can serve a growing population, support clinicians and strengthen the economy — while maintaining day-to-day services already under immense pressure.

Ming Tang, Fellow at Imperial Business School and a key architect of the NHS digital strategy, delivered the keynote lecture. She outlined both the scale of the challenge and the transformative potential of digital reform. The NHS is a vast ecosystem. On an average day: 1.3 million GP appointments take place, 304,000 outpatient appointments are delivered and 46,000 patients attend A&E. This activity is supported by a £188.5 billion annual budget. Yet despite this scale of investment, 7.6 million people remain on waiting lists. A third of patients wait more than a week to see their GP, and 74.5% of A&E patients wait over four hours to be seen — with an estimated 40% not requiring emergency care in the first place.

For Tang, the conclusion is clear: the system is not failing for lack of effort, but because it was not designed for the demands of modern healthcare.

The NHS 10-Year Plan aims to harness digital technology to reduce costs and improve outcomes through three fundamental shifts:

• From hospital to community care
• From analogue to digital systems
• From treatment to prevention

To deliver these shifts, Tang described three critical “bridges” underpinning the transformation.

Bridge One: The Bridge of Trust — (The FDP)

Trust between organisations — and within them — lies at the heart of digital reform.

The Federated Data Platform (FDP) allows NHS organisations to collaborate while maintaining sovereignty over their own data. Each trust operates under its own governance processes, so a national licence model has been introduced to ensure organisations retain control over how and where their data is used.

By leveraging artificial intelligence, the NHS has already begun to unlock efficiencies. AI tools are helping draft discharge summaries, easing administrative burdens for junior doctors and improving communication with GPs. Operating theatre scheduling has been optimised, ensuring patients are prepared for procedures and records are accessible in one place.

The results are tangible:

• Over one million staff hours saved
• More than 80,000 additional patients treated
• Improved clinician confidence and control over workflows

Bridge Two: The Bridge of Agency — The NHS App

If trust underpins reform, agency empowers it.

The NHS App is central to the vision of a “digital front door” — a secure gateway through which patients can manage appointments, access records and interact with services. While uptake has grown significantly — with 71 million logins recorded — only 33.9 million appointments are currently managed through the app. Some GP practices remain hesitant, concerned about losing control of appointment systems.

Yet digital engagement offers clear benefits: reduced postage costs, fewer missed appointments through text confirmations, and greater patient autonomy.

The ambition is to evolve the app into an intuitive platform featuring:

• A digital assistant for patients
• A digital assistant for clinicians
• A single, integrated patient record
• Proxy access for carers and family members

Tang shared a personal story that illustrated the importance of inclusive design. As a child, she translated medical appointments from English to Cantonese for her parents. Today, at 87 years old, her mother manages her type 2 diabetes using the NHS App and translation tools, while Tang monitors her care via proxy access.

Embedding multiple languages directly into the app is now part of the ongoing development — ensuring accessibility is built into the system, not added as an afterthought.

Bridge Three: The Bridge of Professionalism

Historically, NHS data collection has primarily served organisational reporting requirements. The 10-Year Plan seeks to reposition data around the patient.

By consolidating records into a single, secure view, clinicians will have faster access to comprehensive information, while patients will gain visibility over their own care pathways across health and social care.

The NHS is aligning with international Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards to improve compatibility and data sharing. It is also investing in digital and data professionals, low-code platforms and real-time data capture to reduce long-term maintenance costs.

The Federated Data Platform now includes advanced AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to support data querying, summarisation and insight generation. Alongside this, a Digital and Data Academy has been established to build internal capability.

The long-term goal is ambitious: a learning health system that continuously improves through data-driven insight.

Reimagining Healthcare

“NHS Online” represents a new model — a nationally coordinated digital hospital infrastructure powered by APIs and designed for interoperability. But, as Tang emphasised, transformation is not just about technology.

“It’s not about the technology. It’s about us being much more confident that we can do this, and bringing those resources together in a multidisciplinary way. It shouldn’t just be about tech and data. We have to bring the clinicians and the ops teams together. Everything I’ve learned in the last five years is that bringing multidisciplinary teams together is how you get the best results — and that’s why I was fascinated by the School of Convergence.”  - Ming Tang, Chief Digital and Information officer (Interim) at NHS England. 

Digital transformation will not eliminate face-to-face care. Rather, by enabling those who can use digital services to do so, the NHS can free up capacity for patients who require in-person support.

With foundational infrastructure — from reliable Wi-Fi to single sign-on systems — now being strengthened, the NHS 10-Year Plan seeks to demonstrate that the health service is worth investing in: improving patient experience, supporting staff wellbeing and building resilience for generations to come.

The challenge is immense. But so too is the opportunity to reimagine healthcare for the digital age.

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ChatGPT-5 was used to do the final edit of this article.