The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has ‘retired’ the NHSX brand for its policy unit for digital health and care.
It has confirmed that, in line with a plan announced last November, the unit will now work as part of the Transformation Directorate of NHS England and Improvement.
A spokesperson said it will continue to work as a joint unit with staff from the DHSC and NHS England taking part.
Matthew Gould (pictured), chief executive of NHSX, marked the change with a blogpost celebrating the unit’s work since it was set up three years ago. He highlighted efforts to support the integration of health and social care with digital technology, the development of guidance for frontline leaders in digital transformation, changes in data flows across the system, and supporting trusts in raising their digital maturity.
He said there has also been a shift towards digitally enabled care at home, the establishment of the NHS AI Lab and the delivery of the NHS Covid Pass and NHS App. There has also been a three-year capital investment of £2.1 billion in the sector.
Pressing on
“There is still a huge job to do,” he said. “My team aren’t going anywhere – we will be pressing on with our work as part of NHS England’s Transformation Directorate and as part of DHSC.”
The NHSX website is still live at time of publication for existing content.
As yet there has been no indication from NHS Digital, which is also being merged into the Transformation Directorate, of the change having taken place.
While the new directorate is still taking shape, Digital Health Intelligence has reported that Simon Bolton, interim CEO at NHS Digital, will become interim CIO at NHS England and Improvement, while Gould will remain as national director of digital transformation.
