Doctors will soon use the NHS app to track patients step counts under government plans to crack down on obesity and help get tens of thousands back to work.
The move, part of a wider scheme to completely revamp the app, would help ensure ‘we as a nation feel healthier’, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins claimed.
But the ‘nanny state’ measure has already sparked alarm among critics who warned it would backfire. One doctor even labelled it ‘horribly Big Brother-ish’.
Funded by the £3.4billion investment into new technology, announced in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget, the NHS will make use of the ‘wealth of data’ collected by smartphones.
Ms Atkins said it would enable to health service to link up step count and heart rate data, routinely stored on smartphones, to help medics provide personalised advice, screening and treatment.
The move, part of a wider scheme to completely revamp the app, would help ensure ‘we as a nation feel healthier’, health secretary Victoria Atkins (pictured) claimed
Funded by the £3.4billion investment into new technology, announced in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget, the NHS will make use of the ‘wealth of data’ collected by smartphones. Ms Atkins said it would enable to health service to link up step count and heart rate data, routinely stored on smartphones, to help medics provide personalised advice, screening and treatment
Responding to the measure on X, formerly known as Twitter, NHS doctor and author Dr Rachel Clarke said: ‘Horribly Big Brother-ish overtones to this headline.
‘I won’t be electronically tracking any of my patients without their consent, not acting as an outpost of the Department of Work and Pensions either.’
The medic, who recently co-wrote the ITV Covid hospital drama ‘Breathtaking’, added: ‘Our patients are people, not economic productivity widgets.’
Meanwhile, Dennis Reed told MailOnline: ‘This is the nanny state in the extreme. People will wake up to find apps controlling their lives, literally every step they take.
‘Thankfully, most older people are very suspicious of apps and if this proposal comes to fruition many will delete the app because of the civil liberty implications.
‘The Secretary of State’s unthinking approach on new technology will backfire badly unless she gets a grip on her enthusiasm for all things digital.’
Around £430million of the £3.4billion investment will be put into the NHS App, Ms Atkins said.
She told The Times the reforms had a ‘really important role’ in bringing down the record 2.8million people who are currently off work with long-term sickness.
‘A strong economy helps pay for the NHS but actually a strong NHS helps a growing economy,’ she said.
Ms Atkins added: “If you think of the data that we have on our phones, healthcare is absolutely going to be there encouraging people to find out what is a healthy lifestyle for them.
‘How can they help quit smoking, talking therapies on the NHS App… these are all things that are going to be helping us in future.’
The wider £3.4billion investment will also see AI assistants introduced to help write up doctor’s notes and interpret scans for diseases like cancer faster.
But the AI assistant note plan itself has also faced backlash, with patient safety campaigners warning people may be too embarrassed to discuss medical issues freely while being recorded.
Others fear the notes could be inaccurate.
On Wednesday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claimed it would stop NHS staff wasting time filling out forms and instead boost the number of appointments tackling the NHS backlog.
Some £1billion will also be used to introduce an NHS staff app to make it easier for staff to move employment records around the system.
Earlier this week the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the number of people out of work would stay high for years as economic inactivity proves ‘more persistent’ than previously thought.
Responding to the measure on X, formerly known as Twitter , NHS doctor and author Dr Rachel Clarke said: ‘Horribly Big Brother-ish overtones to this headline. ‘I won’t be electronically tracking any of my patients without their consent, not acting as an outpost of the Department of Work and Pensions either.’ The medic, who recently co-wrote the ITV Covid hospital drama ‘Breathtaking’, added: ‘Our patients are people, not economic productivity widgets’
Others have long also projected that benefit payments could rise by £9billion between 2019 and 2027.
MailOnline understands there are around 3,000 people claiming personal independence payments — benefits available to those with a long-term condition or disability — with the primary condition being ‘obesity’.
It comes as Ms Atkins yesterday told a a Nuffield Trust summit that the NHS needed a ‘turnaround’ like Marks and Spencer to ensure its productivity plan ‘improves care throughout England’.
Announcing the appointment of former M&S chief executive Steve Rowe as an NHS productivity tsar, she said: ‘We are standing on the cusp of a medical revolution, where technology, personalised therapies and better data can transform outcomes for a generation who are more health conscious than any that came before them.
‘The NHS must seize this opportunity and look to the future, not restrict ourselves to what has always been done. In fact, it needs to have – to borrow a phrase an M&S moment.
‘This much love British brand a stalwart of our high streets for decades, realised that change was needed and embraced modernity, pivoting towards the next generation willing them over and securing its long term future.
‘This is what the NHS needs to do to make sure it’s there for the next 75 years.’
