Having said all of this, there are multiple significant opportunities for improvement open to the health and care sectors this year, including: Maintaining the scale and pace of innovation demonstrated in 2020, for example, in digitisation and the use of technology to enhance remote delivery of services where appropriate; increased use and integration of data, whilst maintaining security and privacy; the rapid development of effective (and often low cost) Covid treatments; and the use of AI and other new technology in the treatment of conditions such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. Harnessing the pace of development (and approval) of Covid vaccines in the response to future changes to the virus and to other diseases, where RNA vaccines appear to offer considerable promise. Whilst also presenting a risk of disruption and distraction, restructuring of the NHS and local government presents opportunities to improve service integration and efficiency, through devolution (to local level) and collaboration. A specific example is plans for reforms to Integrated Care Systems (as part of the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan) to embed these, with the aims of: > Improving population health and healthcare > Tackling unequal outcomes and access > Enhancing productivity and value for money > Helping the NHS to support broader social and economic development > Using digital and data to drive system working and improved outcomes Care will be needed to fully consider the impacts of these changes on funding (ICS will distribute financial resources and increasingly take on the main commissioning role), governance (and decision making), accountability (can collective accountability work?) and assurance arrangements (maximising assurance received, whilst reducing duplication and bureaucracy).
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