The Chancellor has announced during his Spring Budget that the “antiquated” NHS IT systems will receive a £3.4 billion investment boost.
Hunt told MPs in the House of Commons on Wednesday that the IT systems that support NHS staff are “often antiquated.”
Jeremy Hunt delivered a long term plan and said, “I wanted better care for patients, better value for taxpayers and more rewarding work for its staff. Making changes on the scale we need is not cheap.
“The investment needed to modernise NHS IT systems so they are as good as the best in the world costs £3.4 billion.
“But it helps unlock £35 billion of savings, 10 times that amount. So in today’s Budget for long-term growth, I have decided to fund the NHS productivity plan in full.”
Hunt added, “We will slash the 13 million hours lost by doctors and nurses every year to outdated IT systems.
“We will use AI to cut down and potentially cut in half form filling by doctors. We will digitise operating theatre processes allowing the same number of consultants to do an extra 200,000 operations a year.
“We will fund improvements to help doctors read MRI and CT scans more accurately and quickly, speeding up results for 130,000 patients every year and saving thousands of lives, something I know would have delighted my brother Charlie who I recently lost to cancer.”
He also said that there will be an additional £2.5 billion to meet improvements to all appointments.
The Chancellor said, “On top of funding this longer-term transformation, we will also help the NHS meet pressures in the coming year with an additional £2.5 billion.
“This will allow the NHS to continue its focus on reducing waiting times and brings the total increase in NHS funding since the start of the parliament to 13% in real terms.”
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