At Westminster Insight’s Digital Health & Social Care conference, Dr Saif Ahmed, Tameside & Glossop ICFT / Health Innovation Manchester (bottom on image),  and Stephanie Kumpunen, Nuffield Trust, (top right) explored a crucial question with Dr Phillip Scott (top left): Where are we now on the NHS’s 10year plan journey and what must happen next? 

What has been achieved? 

The last few years have delivered tangible progress across the system. Shared Care Records are now live in every ICS, providing clinicians with more complete, real‑time information. AI‑enabled tools such as ambient voice transcription and AI scribes have begun reducing administrative burden. Remote monitoring, virtual wards, and digital pathways are supporting earlier intervention, prevention and more care at home.

Legislative progress, notably the Data Use and Access Act, has introduced mandatory information standards and laid firm foundations for safer, more consistent data sharing.

Patient access has also shifted. The NHS App is becoming the “digital front door”, with trusts like Tameside & Glossop now integrating hospital portals to enable appointment management, notifications and direct communication with clinicians.

However, digital exclusion remains a barrier, particularly in areas where affordability of mobile data limits access. Saif stressed the need for hybrid models so that nondigital routes remain available, ensuring inclusivity rather than new inequalities.

What Needs to Happen Next  

• Preparing for the Single Patient Record (SPR) will require building on existing Shared Care Records like the GM Care Record rather than starting from scratch. A realistic pathway towards a federated national view, supported by the National Record Locator, will be critical, alongside modernising underlying architecture through open standards and longitudinal data layers. 

• Interoperability and secure data sharing must evolve further. Public trust remains fragile, and national bodies need to communicate clearly how data is protected, stored and accessed. Patient control, including optout routes and access logs, will be key. 

• Scaling digital infrastructure means more than implementing EPRs. The next challenge is safe, coordinated AI adoption. Guardrails, governance and workforce skills must keep pace with rapid deployment of AI tools across the NHS, preventing a widening maturity gap. 

A Connected, Trusted Digital NHS 

Significant progress has been made. The next decade must focus on consistent standards, safe AI, patient trust and digital models that genuinely improve care, not just processes.

To deliver the 10 year plan’s promise, the NHS must:

• strengthen digital foundations, 

• standardise data and architecture, 

• build public trust, 

• govern AI safely, and 

• ensure digital transformation improves care for people, not just processes. 

With the right steps now, digital transformation can deliver a more connected, intelligent and equitable NHS.