CEO of the NHS Digital (NHSD), Simon Bolton stressed the importance of improving working relationships between NHS England and NHSX, during a board meeting on 21 July. 

Stating that "it could be better," Bolton added that he is working with NHS organisation leaders to prioritise this and establish how they can "work more collaboratively and in a more aligned way."

Bolton also raised concerns that NHS Digital still had "more workload than it could execute", and there was a risk that projects would have to be abandoned.

Bolton was previously the chief information officer of NHS Test and Trace, and took over from former CEO Sarah Wilkinson in June 2020. 

“We’re working with colleagues in NHSX and NHSE, to ensure the workload that we’ve got is the right workload and it’s deliverable in the course of this financial year."

-Simon Bolton, NHSD CEO

WHY IT MATTERS

Last year, similar concerns were also raised by Wilkinson, who stated that staff were suffering from burnout during the pandemic as they were being asked to deliver programmes beyond their capacity.

The NHS workforce has also been faced with redundancies over the last two years. In 2018, NHS Digital launched a redundancy programme, called Org2, which saw 158 employees lose their jobs in 2019-20. 

Following plans to reform integrated care systems across the NHS, NHSE recently stated that its employment commitment to protect jobs for most commissioning staff will not apply to senior NHSE/I staff in clinical commissioning groups.

Bolton told the meeting: “Right now, we have more workload than we can execute again. It’s not just NHSD, but restrictions across the system, including NHSX.

“We’re working with colleagues in NHSX and NHSE, to ensure the workload that we’ve got is the right workload and it’s deliverable in the course of this financial year.

“And of course, if that means we need to hand back money to the commissioners because we can’t deliver, we want to do that early rather than later in the year.”

NHSX was set up in 2019 by Matt Hancock who pledged it would “harness the true potential of technology to transform care.”

THE LARGER CONTEXT

In recent news, the government halted its controversial GP data sharing scheme, following Lord Bethell admitting 'mistakes' have been made in the way the programme has been run and managed.

ON THE RECORD

An NHS Digital spokesperson said: “The pandemic has fostered ever closer relationships between NHS organisations and this collaboration has delivered for frontline NHS staff and patients, including the rollout of tools to enable digital working and provide access to coronavirus information and services, developing the Shielded Patient List to identify and protect those most vulnerable and rolling out vaccines across the country. 

“We will continue to build on these successes with colleagues across the NHS, working closely in partnership as we emerge from the pandemic and beyond. Together with NHSX we are focused on delivering better health outcomes, improving and transforming healthcare services and delivering real and valuable impact on the front line.”