The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) will spend £114 million on IT infrastructure upgrades, new figures show.
Using data retrieved under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the Parliament Street thinktank found the DHSC will increase budgets and staffing figures as part of an ongoing NHS restructuring in the UK.
Parliament Street’s analysis also revealed that the IT budget for the 2024-2025 financial year is set at £29.1 million, excluding staffing costs, marking a decrease from the previous year in which the total budget was £37.7 million. The highest recorded IT budget was £47.2 million between 2022 and 2023.
The DHSC employed 38 IT staff as of December 2024, with staff figures ranging between 35 and 45 over the last five years. Total IT staff salaries amounted to £1.67 million in 2023.
“The Department for Health and Social Care’s continued investment in IT infrastructure is a critical step in modernizing the UK’s healthcare system, but cybersecurity resilience must be a top priority,” Andy Ward, international SVP at Absolute Security, commented.
“Without it, healthcare organisations remain exposed to cyberattacks, data breaches, and operational disruption,” Ward said.
Ward cited research from Absolute Security which found that 15% of PCs in healthcare facilities fail to meet basic security and compliance requirements and are responsible for creating vulnerabilities in these organizations.
He said healthcare organizations must ensure IT investments go towards creating long-term resilience by closing security gaps, automating patch management, and strengthening endpoints.
“In an industry where cybersecurity is patient safety, resilience isn’t just necessary, it’s non-negotiable,” Ward said.
UK public sector in dire need of modernizing
Investment in infrastructure is growing in importance given the state of the UK’s aging public sector tech. One government report from earlier this year found that “archaic” technology is hampering the work of civil servants and costing the UK taxpayer £45 billion.
“Technology that sits at the foundation of our country has been left to wither and decay under the hands of the previous government, too often grinding to a halt and stalling essential public services,” Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said at the time.
Other research from Appian found that public sector staff are working an average of five extra hours a week due to tech inefficiencies, adding up to 30.6 million hours of unnecessary work every week.
