Latest NHS News

Joe and Pete explain the greater emphasis being placed on digital patient messaging across the NHS and the potential to provide a more seamless experience for patients, reduce the number of missed appointments and save the NHS money.  This week, the Secretary of State announced the start of our journey to becoming a "digital first NHS" – here is what it means for you. In other aspects of our lives, it's second nature to receive messages digitally. Think online bank statements, email receipts for our online shopping or text messages confirming our home deliveries have arrived. But for various reasons, the NHS has found this challenging, and we still send out millions of letters to patients each year.

Ryan Lee explains how our Threat Operations team use a unique network of intelligence and techniques to detect advanced cyber threats before they can cause harm – and what everyone working in the NHS should do to help. If you worked for the NHS 10 years ago, you would have heard cyber security spoken about quite differently. It was often seen as an IT issue, lumped into conversations about software updates and internet usage. Now, cyber is rightly understood to be a patient safety issue. As the cyber threat has become more sophisticated, so has our cyber security approach for the NHS. We have evolved significantly in recent years in response to the growing threat. My team’s specialist work in threat operations is one example of this, and just one part of our central cyber security defence approach.

Karol Kuczera and Max Marulli De Barletta reflect on their visit to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre and how inclusive technology can enable more equitable access to health, education and broader social participation. In today’s NHS, digital tools are central to how we deliver care, share information, and empower people to manage their health. But for those facing barriers to access – whether through disability, language or low digital confidence – these tools can just as easily widen inequalities as reduce them.

Emma Swift and Zuzanna Lito explain how we've updated the NHS service standard to make sure teams building online services are more aware and responsive to the risks of domestic abuse and coercive control. The NHS service standard helps teams build and run digital services that meet users’ needs. It's designed to improve patients’ care and experience when engaging with the NHS online. The service standard has recently undergone some small but significant updates. The new updates are designed to make sure that teams building online services are more aware of and responsive to the risks of domestic abuse and coercive control.

Professor Matt Sydes, Head of Data-Driven Clinical Trials at NHS England, describes how his personal and professional lives collided when a family member was affected by a rare cancer. As a statistician and a trialist, I've been involved with researching many different diseases and conditions over the years. I’ve planned and run studies, analysed data, and interpreted and disseminated findings from clinical trials to support the development of new treatments and interventions, all to help doctors and patients make the best healthcare decisions that improve and extend lives.