Health secretary promises “world class” hospital IT

England’s health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has pledged to improve and extend the NHS’s digital services, bolstered by a new staff skills academy and a so called “Ivy League” of exemplar trusts.

He said that digital technologies could improve the quality of care and safety of patients and that the NHS needed a “new generation” of skilled clinical information specialists to ensure “world class” information technology in hospitals.

Hunt said, “IT transformations fail if they don’t have clinical leadership. We have to make sure every penny we spend improves doctor productivity, because then we’ll get doctor buy-in and nurse buy-in to these changes.”

He was speaking on Wednesday 7 September at NHS England’s Expo 2016 in Manchester, where he …