While there is great uncertainty over the future of England's NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), IT spending in the healthcare sector will continue to climb over the next five years.
A new report from Kable shows that continued work on implementing the Care Record Service (CRS) will fuel a growth in the market for software systems, which will combine with an increase in remote and mobile working to support continued investment.
A diagnosis of NHS IT: UK healthcare market profile 2013-14 forecasts that annual spending in the sector will rise from £2.34bn in 2007-08 to £3.48bn in 2013-14, representing a compound annual growth of 6.9%.
Although the CRS has been delayed by two years, its development has now reached a tipping point and should prompt the signing of a large number of contracts over the next two years. These will cover clinical, logistical and managerial applications, ranging from patient administration systems to more complex operations such as asset and contract management, risk assessment, remote telemetry and recording details to comply with the Mental Heatlh Act. The market will also open up as NHS trusts are given the freedom to choose alternatives to the core systems – Cerner Millenium and iSoft's Lorenzo - previously specified within NPfIT.
The other main driving forces are the shift to telecare, which is encouraging the adoption of the relevant technology, and the growing use of mobility enablers such as smart cards, RFID tags, PDAs and Blackberrys.
* Anyone interested in the report can contact Rachel Colby on 020 3353 2497 or rachel.colby@kable.co.uk.
