NHSX and NHS Digital to merge with NHS England

According to Wade-Gery, the goal of her review is to equip the national centre with the right capability to support integrated care systems to deliver better citizen health.

“We need to have the culture, operating model, skills, capabilities and processes to put data, digital and technology at the heart of how we transform health services,” she noted.

According to DHSC, the NHS and social care sectors have made significant inroads in their digital technology efforts over the years. The department noted NHSX had “fulfilled its mandate” in terms of digital transformation in the health system.

Commenting on the decision, NHSX chief executive Matthew Gould said the digital delivery unit set up in 2019 “has been making the case for digital transformation in the NHS, and for digital to be integrated within the NHS rather than kept in its own silo”.

“This reorganisation is the culmination of that campaign. It is an excellent step – a more coherent structure that will allow us to accelerate digital transformation across health and care,” he added.

The merger has been on the cards since February, amid concerns over a lack of clarity over the roles of NHSX and NHS Digital.

As part of the reform, DHSC will establish a data-driven digital delivery unit to sit within the existing NHS delivery unit to “help government better understand the blockers to recovering NHS services following the pandemic and how they can be overcome”.

According to NHS Digital interim chief executive Simon Boulton, the work carried out by his organisation has made a “real and valuable impact for the public” in terms of managing the pandemic.

“Now we will build on this progress as one organisation, accelerating the digitally enabled transformation of the NHS and improving it, both for its staff and the people it serves at the time they are most in need,” he noted.