Health Foundation long read (PDF version) - How would clinicians use time freed up by

Supporting information 22 How would clinicians use time freed up by technology? 2 Key points • The idea that technology can free up ‘time to care’ for NHS staff, allowing the health service to increase volumes of clinical activity, has become a major focus of health policy, informing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and the NHS productivity plan announced in the 2024 Spring Budget. [...] The evidence review estimated that less than 1% of the literature on the impact of technology on staff time in health care actually considers how freed-up time is repurposed. [...] To reach and represent each group, we worked directly with the relevant professional body: • anaesthetists (via the Royal College of Anaesthetists) • GPs (via the Royal College of General Practitioners) • intensive care doctors (via the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine) • nurses (via the Royal College of Nursing) • obstetricians and gynaecologists (via the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gyna. [...] How would clinicians use time freed up by technology? 5 We also commissioned the Evidence Centre to carry out a rapid review of the evidence base on the impact of digital and telephone technology on staff time in health care to help us understand the scope of literature. [...] While this was a rapid review of the evidence, studies on how freed-up time is repurposed nevertheless appear to be only a tiny proportion of the overall literature on technology and time in health care.