Sciensus at the Labour Party Conference
At the 2026 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Sciensus and The Purpose Coalition brought together parliamentarians and healthcare leaders to discuss how to deliver the NHS 10 Year Plan closer to home.
The discussion reinforced the case for clinical homecare. For people living with long-term and complex conditions, receiving appropriate specialist treatment at home can mean fewer hospital journeys and less disruption to work, education and family life. For the NHS, it can release capacity for patients who genuinely need to be in acute settings.
But one of the clearest messages from the panel was that changing where care happens requires changing how the system works around the patient.
Digital infrastructure is central to that. If patients are receiving care across hospitals, neighbourhood services and their homes, information needs to move with them. The Single Patient Record therefore has the potential to be an important enabler of care closer to home – giving different parts of the system access to the information they need and supporting greater continuity across a patient’s pathway.
The wider lesson from the discussion was that digital integration should not be treated as a separate strand of NHS reform. It is part of the infrastructure needed to make more connected models of care possible.
Another key message was about mindset. Rather than beginning with the assumption that treatment happens in hospital, the starting question should increasingly be: can this care be delivered safely and effectively at home or closer to home?
Not every service can, or should, be taken out of hospital. However, the system should be making location a deliberate clinical and patient-centred decision, rather than allowing the hospital to remain the default.
As the NHS moves from ambition to implementation, these two changes need to go together – more connected information and a stronger presumption towards care closer to home where clinically appropriate. Sciensus’ model shows that much of the capability already exists.
