Can technology save the NHS?

From its crowded GP surgeries to its cash-strapped hospitals, there’s little doubt that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is going through a tough time.

And although the outcome of the forthcoming general election may provide some temporary respite for one of Britain’s best-loved institutions, fundamental demographic forces are at play that mean these challenges are only likely to become more acute in the years ahead.

By 2030, there will be 50 per cent more over-65s and more than double the number of over-85s alive in England than in 2010. And this rapid growth of the number of people living into their late eighties, as well as a corresponding decrease in the number of younger people able to look after them, will create unprecedented pressures for the healthcare system in general, and its hospitals in particular.

Against this backdrop, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the service’s future. But could technology help fundamentally reshape the way we approach healthcare, and in the process get the NHS off the critical list?