Bridging the digital divide: how smarter systems can strengthen healthcare services in 2025

This article is part of our Opinions section, where we invite industry professionals to share their views on the most pressing technology questions of our time.

The healthcare industry faces a critical challenge: how to continue delivering high-quality care amid rising demand, budget constraints and ongoing workforce pressures. While frontline clinical transformation has rightly dominated the agenda in recent years, one of the most overlooked opportunities to support this mission lies behind the scenes – in the infrastructure, systems and teams powering hospital support services.

These are not just administrative functions. They’re the connective tissue that enables efficient, coordinated care, spanning everything from data management and reporting to workforce planning, procurement and system performance monitoring. As integrated care systems (ICSs) mature and digital clinical pathways become more established, the case for modernising the supporting digital environment is clearer than ever.

The problem with fragmentation

Across many NHS trusts in the UK, support services are still powered by a patchwork of legacy systems, often inherited and maintained in siloes. IT teams may be juggling dozens of platforms across clinical, operational and administrative areas, with little interoperability and high resource demand. Even within the same ICS, different trusts may use entirely different technologies, leading to duplication, inefficiencies and delays.

This fragmentation creates real risks. It limits visibility across organisations, drives up costs, complicates governance, and hampers efforts to standardise processes or share data securely. Most importantly, it affects patient care – delays in accessing accurate information, or gaps between digital and clinical operations, can lead to poor experiences and slower treatment decisions.

As the NHS England 2024/25 Operational Planning Guidance makes clear, the next phase of transformation must focus on systems working together, not just clinically, but digitally.

Consolidation is not just cost-cutting.

There is a growing consensus that the consolidation of IT systems and teams is a necessary enabler of NHS-wide ambitions. But this is not simply about doing more with less. It’s about doing better with less.

Consolidating IT infrastructure – whether that’s streamlining multiple platforms into a single, secure environment, or forming a shared IT service across multiple trusts – can bring significant benefits. This includes:

• Cost control: Pooled budgets and shared infrastructure help reduce duplication, lower licence fees, and cut procurement costs.
• Operational resilience: A centralised approach improves business continuity planning, cybersecurity posture, and response times during incidents.
• Data quality and accessibility: Consolidation enables clearer, more consistent data across organisations, supporting accurate benchmarking, predictive analytics, and faster decision-making.
• Workforce efficiency: Shared IT services can reduce recruitment challenges and allow specialist digital staff to work across sites, making better use of limited expertise.
• Alignment with clinical priorities: A unified digital environment can support integrated clinical pathways, faster triage, and reduced waiting times by improving access to real-time information.

What good looks like

An example of this thinking in action is the ongoing work to create a single IT function across the four acute trusts in North West London. The aim is to pool expertise, harmonise systems, and reduce duplication across the patch, freeing up resources that can be redirected toward patient-facing improvements.

Vendor-agnostic, scalable platforms can support these ambitions, by helping NHS organisations replace fragmented records with a single, secure clinical data platform, which, in turn, enables faster access to information, better integration with EPR systems, and improved auditability, while reducing the operational burden on IT teams.

This is the kind of foundation the NHS – and the global healthcare industry – needs if it’s to bridge the gap between clinical and digital. Support services must evolve from passive infrastructure into active enablers of transformation.

The path to smarter support systems

So, what steps can healthcare organisations take in 2025 to build a more efficient digital support landscape

1. Start with a clear strategy
   Before consolidating, trusts and ICSs need a shared vision. What systems are essential? Which can be retired or merged? Who owns what? A robust strategy – aligned with the wider ICS goals and the NHS’ Long Term Plan – is essential to bring stakeholders together and guide investment.
2. Invest in scalable, interoperable systems
   Avoid vendor lock-in and build flexibility for the future by choosing platforms that are open, scalable, and standards-based. They should integrate easily with existing EPRs, PAS, and other clinical systems, while offering the ability to grow and adapt as needs evolve.
3. Use automation and AI to boost capacity
   From AI-powered dashboards that monitor performance across multiple trusts to automation that reduces manual data entry and administrative workloads, emerging technologies can multiply impact without increasing headcount.
4. Leverage real-time analytics and benchmarking
   Access to accurate, timely data can drive better decisions across the board. From finance and estates to digital maturity tracking and care pathway performance, analytics tools should be embedded in core systems, not bolted on as an afterthought.
5. Factor in robust cybersecurity
   Consolidated systems increase risk if security is not considered from the outset. Every step must be underpinned by strong access controls, compliance with DSPT and NHS Cyber Alerts, and proactive threat monitoring.
6. Engage and upskill the workforce
   Digital transformation doesn’t work without people. Teams must be engaged early, with training and change management support to ensure new systems are used effectively. Shared services can also provide better career development and retention opportunities in hard-to-recruit roles like digital architecture and system integration.

A better-connected future

As Deloitte points out in its work on NHS shared services, the real goal isn’t just efficiency – it’s enabling better patient care. By creating a smarter, more integrated digital environment, trusts and ICSs can unlock the potential of data, reduce the pressure on staff, and deliver faster, safer, more joined-up care.

In 2025, healthcare leaders must treat support services not as a background function but as a strategic priority. With the right systems and partnerships, the digital foundation of the NHS can become a driver of transformation, not a barrier to it.