The integration of health and social care is one of the major challenges facing the UK public sector, and digital technology and data will be at the centre of making it happen.
The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how much can be achieved, and how quickly, and provided a fresh momentum for more collaborative working between the two sides. The steady development of shared care records is encouraging the view that, with sufficient resources, there can be much a strong alignment of their efforts.
The pandemic has also shown how technology can provide new approaches to care in both sectors, such as the use of virtual wards for patients to be treated outside of hospitals, and a series of projects in the Social Care Digital Pathfinders programme.
Overall, there is a great potential to use virtual systems, real time data, automation and artificial intelligence to deliver better care all round. But there are issues to address in the deployment of technology, information governance and culture change.
These will be examined at this week’s UKAuthority Integrating Digital Health and Care 2022 online conference. Comprising three 90-minute sessions – from 11.-00-12.30 on 11, 12 and 13 May – it will cover several of the major issues and provide examples of how organisations are breaking new ground in digital approaches to care.
Speakers include Jonathan Cameron, director for digital health and care in the Scottish Government, Ann Williams, commissioner and contracts manager for Liverpool City Council, Ifan Evans, executive director strategy at Digital Health and Care Wales, and Leontina Postinicu, head of health and social care at techUK.
There will also be contributions from the event’s sponsors – Blue Prism, Nutanix and Tisski – providing industry perspectives on how to deal with the challenges.
It presents an excellent opportunity for public sector officials to understand the possibilities for progress in meeting one of the major social challenges of the decade. It is still possible to sign on for the event, which is free to public sector delegates, from here.
