Single architecture for collaboration is the way forward

If the NHS is to keep sight of its digital targets, it’s time tech got back on track.

“It’s clear there needs to be a change to the delivery of technology within the NHS, shifting to a cloud-based approach that does away with the firefighting in infrastructure management and allows for resources to be dedicated to user support.”

Anyone entering an Asda to pick up some mouthwash will now get NHS messaging along with minty fresh breath. The new partnership means dental products point out the oral symptoms to look for, with guidance on how to get help—before in-store signage seamlessly gets shoppers from aisle to checkout. 

If only those working within the NHS had such an easy off-the-shelf solution for collaboration and the same helping hand showing the way to digital success.

For an organisation still using fax machines frequently enough in 2020 that the Health Secretary had to ban them, it’s no surprise that the NHS is struggling to keep pace with digital communication and collaboration services.

Yet progress is essential—and expected. The NHS has the ambition for the majority of its health and social care services to have digital foundations in place by March 2025.

Outdated telephony

Even as pioneering hospitals perform surgery in virtual reality and use AI to analyse X-rays, telephony infrastructures dating from the 2000s and even back to the 80s are still in place today.

Those struggling with the transition from analogue to digital landlines have been given a slight reprieve. BT will now switch off PSTN and ISDN in January 2027, rather than December 2025. But in the meantime, resilience and clinical communication requirements mean healthcare organisations are not fully resolving the technical debt across their ageing architectures.

Shortage of talent

Former NHS Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) Dr. Simon Eccles has described the NHS pathway for digital careers as being more like a “rockface,” with a lack of clarity about the expertise needed or to be nurtured. This is likely to be one reason technical staff are some of the record 170,000 people who have left the NHS in England. The result is a worrying over-reliance upon local knowledge with specialist skill sets.

Eccles also believes “the NHS workforce is on average less digitally literate than the wider UK workforce,” adding that the problem within the NHS is that “people can’t use digital tools, or the digital tools are unusable.”

It’s clear there needs to be a change to the delivery of technology within the NHS, shifting to a cloud-based approach that does away with the firefighting in infrastructure management and allows for resources to be dedicated to user support.

Troubled integration

Fragmentation across NHS Trusts has made it difficult to establish the kind of seamless, unified regional service that works across different systems with ease. Instead, users are juggling multiple applications that don’t integrate with one another.

This has led to significant variability across the Trusts. Whilst some are celebrated as Global Digital Exemplars, there are others that are nowhere close to the 21st century service model envisaged in the NHS Long Term Plan.

A single architecture approach

It’s clear there is a lot of ground to cover — and single architecture offers a solid approach to navigating it, reading like a shopping list of must-haves there for the taking.

Adopting a single architecture would mean a standardised framework that ensures all telephony systems follow the same protocols and standards, and video, voice, messaging and contact centres become integrated into one modern, cohesive system.

At a time when resources and budgets are tight, a single architecture centralises control and management, with IT teams focused on maintaining and troubleshooting one system rather than disparate multitudes.

The result is a single, flexible and always-on collaborative solution that would be truly transformative for health and care providers.

This is exactly the kind of ‘future now’ experience that Block is dedicated to making possible. It’s fair to say it’s far less straightforward than doing the weekly supermarket shop, but all the signs are there that a single architecture approach is the way forward for the NHS.