The onset of coronavirus has turbocharged the take-up of technology in the NHS. As one London GP put it: “We are basically witnessing 10 years of change in one week”.
It’s hard to disagree. Demand for our digital health and remote patient monitoring services is at unprecedented levels as NHS and care providers embrace new ways of working to care for people at home and protect frontline staff from the risk of infection.
This is good news for patients and professionals. It is also good news for our sector and the wider economy. Inhealthcare is based in Harrogate and part of one of the strongest medical technology sectors in the UK.
The Leeds City Region is home to an estimated 250 medical technology companies, notably the UK’s two largest GP software firms, and a further 200 operating in the health and social care field.
We have major health institutions including Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the largest provider of its kind in the UK, the head offices of NHS England and NHS Digital and offices for the Department for Health and Social Care, Care Quality Commission and Public Health England.
We also have two Russell Group universities, Leeds and York, each with world-renowned expertise in life sciences. The Leeds City Region accounts for nearly a quarter of the UK’s digital health employment.
Each and every organisation, whether public or private, has joined the national effort against coronavirus. In the coming phases of this fight, medical technologies will become increasingly important.
The growing demand for our expertise and experience is creating a significant economic opportunity for our region and for the Government’s levelling up agenda. It is driving growth and generating new jobs and tax revenues in a northern heartland.
Supported by far-sighted procurement policies, a strong and successful medical technologies sector in Yorkshire can help the UK emerge from this crisis on a more even keel.