Turning NHS Digital Investment Into Frontline Productivity and Better Patient Care

The direction of travel for the NHS is clear. Improving productivity sits at the centre of how the system is expected to respond to rising demand over the coming decade. The recent 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out the need for sustained 2% improvement in output without a corresponding increase in resource.

That ambition is widely understood. Delivering it is proving more difficult.

Recent analysis from the Health Foundation shows productivity has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, despite significant investment in digital infrastructure. The King’s Fund has drawn similar conclusions, pointing to administrative burden, fragmented processes and inconsistent IT as persistent features of frontline experience. Findings from the NHS Staff Survey reinforce this, with many staff reporting that systems do not reliably support the way they work.

There is no shortage of technology in the system. The question is how much of it is translating into usable capacity.

Where the time goes

Productivity in the NHS is experienced in minutes — the time it takes to begin work, access systems, find and move information, and reach patients. Individually, these delays are barely visible. Over time, they accumulate.

Apogee’s research, based on 244 Freedom of Information responses from NHS trusts, suggests these inefficiencies account for around eight minutes per staff member, per day — more than 35 million hours each year, or over £1 billion in lost productivity.

This reflects friction in everyday workflows: delays at the start of work, interruptions in accessing systems, repeated handling of information, and communication that does not always convert into attended care.

Why this is hard to fix

One of the more striking findings is how difficult this is to see clearly. Across areas such as system access, document volumes and communication outcomes, many organisations cannot track basic operational measures.

When time loss is not visible, it is difficult to prioritise or improve. This helps explain why investment has not consistently translated into productivity gains.

The remaining opportunity lies in how work flows across the system. Delays at the start of a shift, repetition between paper and digital processes, and communication gaps are interconnected. Addressed in isolation, they tend to shift the constraint rather than remove it.

Where the opportunity sits

Organisations making progress focus on flow — how work moves across devices, systems, documents and communication — rather than treating each as a separate problem.

Apogee works with 47 NHS Trusts across the UK, delivering programmes that improve how staff access systems, how information is captured and shared, and how patient communication translates into attended care. This includes large-scale digitisation, document workflow transformation and modernisation of patient communications — reducing duplication, removing delays and improving operational flow.

The impact is practical. Work starts faster, information is available when needed, and fewer steps are required to complete everyday tasks. At trusts including The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and East London NHS Foundation Trust, this approach has helped streamline workflows, reduce duplication, improve access to information and release measurable time back into frontline care.

Minutes lost at the margins are now material at system level. Recovering that time depends on making existing systems work more consistently — reducing friction at the points where work actually happens.

Our Time Back. Care Forward. report sets out where that opportunity sits, what it is costing today, and how NHS organisations are already addressing it in practice.

Download the report to see where time is being lost — and how leading trusts are getting it back.

Download the report