The publication of the NHS’s new 10-year strategy, Fit for the Future, sets an ambitious and necessary direction for healthcare in England. It promises more community-based care, smarter use of technology, and a shift from reactive treatment to proactive prevention.
As the Managing Director of a UK medical device company working closely with NHS Trusts, I welcome this vision. But I also believe it will fall short unless the Government confronts a critical issue head-on: the need for a connected care infrastructure that truly joins the dots between patients, equipment, data, and decision-making – not just in hospitals, but across the full care pathway.
Moving care out of hospitals and into communities sounds logical on paper. But in practice, it brings major logistical, safety, and efficiency challenges that the plan fails to address. Equipment will need to move more frequently between locations. Clinicians will be treating more patients remotely or in people’s homes. Decision-makers will be operating at greater distance from the frontline. In this environment, the ability to track where devices are, how they’re performing, and how patients are responding isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Without real-time data, NHS systems will struggle to coordinate care safely and efficiently. We’ve seen it already – in Trusts where asset tracking is poor, thousands of pounds’ worth of equipment is lost or duplicated. In community services, where visibility is even harder, clinical risk can escalate simply because no one knows what’s available or what condition it’s in.
A regulations review is also promised, alongside a new regulatory framework for medical devices and AI, due to be published in 2026. This is welcome, particularly given past Government criticism for relaxing regulations, which encouraged us to independently test our products to perform beyond NHS standards as a result. However, this type of action needs a structure of execution, not just a vision, and with the MHRA underfunded and understaffed, it’s not clear how that will be achieved.
The plan’s focus on digital transformation is welcome, but digitisation without integration solves little. It’s not enough to roll out yet another app in isolation. What’s needed is interoperable infrastructure that connects equipment, clinical data, and patient needs in real time, across all settings whether that’s a hospital, community hub, or a patient’s home.
The risk, if this is not prioritised, is that costs go up instead of down. Community care only saves money if it’s well-managed. Preventative care only works if risk is identified early. And innovation only delivers value if it’s adopted at scale not stuck in pilot projects or caught in procurement bottlenecks.
At Essential Healthcare, we’ve invested in 4G-enabled technology that allows NHS Trusts to monitor both patients and equipment performance in real time, wherever that care is delivered. This includes early warning signs for pressure injuries, data on equipment usage, and predictive maintenance. While this is just one example, it shows that the technology already exists, what’s needed now is system-wide support for adoption and integration into the NHS infrastructure at scale.
As a Yorkshire-based business working with numerous NHS Trusts, I’ve seen the energy and ingenuity that already exists within the system. But I’ve also seen how underpowered digital infrastructure and fragmented procurement slow that momentum.
If this plan is to succeed, connected care must be more than a concept – it must be embedded as a national priority. Because if we can’t track it, we can’t manage it. And if we can’t manage it, we won’t transform it.
