Nuffield Trust response to plans set out for NHS online hospital

Responding to the plans announced for the NHS online hospital, Nuffield Trust Director of Research and Policy, Dr Becks Fisher said:

"Greater online NHS access will be helpful for some and the focus on menopause and menstrual health makes sense, with waits for gynaecology services intolerably long. Our research also found that women have increasingly spent more time living in ill health throughout their working years than men, so improved support from the NHS could have wider benefits for government aims to tackle rising economic inactivity due to ill health.

"However, tricky questions remain about how this new online hospital plan will be implemented. If the goal is boosting NHS capacity, rather than simply shifting resources around, the government and NHS will need to work out how doctors and nurses will be able to take this on without negatively impacting existing face-to-face work. NHS IT infrastructure could also pose a problem, as it will need to enable relevant information – like scan results – to be seen across different NHS organisations, something that is infamously difficult at the moment. Some patients may end up needing in person care after going down the online hospital route, so the NHS will need to ensure smooth transitions between services, avoiding leaving patients with a snakes and ladders system which lands them back at square one with their GP.  

"No new funding has been announced for this service, and it's not clear whether providing more online care is intended to save money. The NHS budget is incredibly tight, with spending growth currently comparable to the slow growth seen during 2010s austerity, so this is being introduced in very difficult circumstances."