As reported by Digital Health, NHS spending on information technology continues to rise, with total IT investment by local trusts across the UK reaching £4.1bn in 2024/25, up 9% on the previous year, according to analysis by Future Health Intelligence
England accounted for the vast majority of local NHS trust IT spending, representing 87% of the UK total. Most of this investment was made by acute trusts, which were responsible for 80% of spend, compared with 18% by mental health trusts and 2% by community trusts.
Among acute providers, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust recorded the highest IT expenditure in 2024/25 at £109m. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust followed with £90m, while University Hospitals Birmingham spent £68m.
Despite the growth in digital investment, Future Health Intelligence found in July 2025 that most NHS trusts continue to spend significant sums maintaining paper medical records, highlighting ongoing challenges in fully digitising patient information.
Looking ahead, FHI forecasts that total spending on national NHS IT programmes will increase from £1.9bn in 2025/26 to £3bn by 2028/29. Local NHS IT expenditure is also expected to rise sharply, from £4.9bn in 2025/26 to £6.8bn by the end of the period.
While investment in electronic patient records and data infrastructure is expected to mature over the coming years, FHI predicts that spending on AI and automation will increase later in the period to 2028/29, remaining relatively modest compared with other areas until then.
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