THE HIDDEN CRISIS IN NHS EFFICIENCY: WHY VISIBILITY OF MEDICAL DEVICES MATTERS MORE THAN EVER
Winning the Tech for Good Award last month was incredibly humbling, and I’m proud of our team and every NHS staff member who has partnered with us on this journey. But awards aside, I want to shine a light on something far more important.
There’s a hidden crisis inside the NHS that almost no one talks about — a crisis that slows care, delays treatment, frustrates staff, and quietly costs millions.
Frontline staff often can’t locate essential medical devices when they need them.
Infusion pumps, syringe drivers, mattresses, bladder scanners, patient warming devices, suction units, diathermy machines, and key pieces of laparoscopic or theatre equipment — the everyday tools that keep patient care moving — are routinely misplaced or simply not visible when needed.
If staff can’t locate equipment, they can’t use it.
If they can’t use it, care slows.
When care slows, everything downstream is affected.
This is not about blaming anyone in the NHS.
It’s about visibility — and visibility underpins flow, safety and efficiency.
Winter Pressures in Both Acute and Community Care
As we move into the Christmas and winter period — traditionally the most overstretched time of the year — this problem becomes even more intense. Seasonal illness rises, respiratory conditions increase, and unplanned demand builds rapidly across hospitals.
But the strain isn’t limited to acute care.
Community teams — including district nurses, rapid response services, neighbourhood teams and home-visiting staff — are carrying just as much winter pressure. More patients are being managed at home, equipment is moving continuously between locations, and delays ripple back into hospitals when devices can’t be found.
In a winter where every minute counts, missing equipment becomes a system-wide bottleneck.
Theatres — Where Visibility Matters Most
Operating theatres are among the most time-sensitive and resource-intensive environments in the NHS.
If a critical device isn’t where it needs to be — a diathermy machine, suction unit, patient warming device, or a specific piece of theatre equipment — the entire surgical list can stall.
You might have:
- A consultant surgeon ready to begin
- Anaesthetists prepped
- ODPs and scrub nurses in position
- Theatre support staff standing by
- A patient anxious and waiting
- A full operating theatre team — sometimes up to eight staff — ready to go
But if essential equipment is missing, everything stops.
And here’s the truth that rarely gets surfaced:
A one-hour delay doesn’t cost one hour.
It costs eight clinicians × one hour × every downstream delay.
This impacts:
- Theatre utilisation
- Recovery flow
- Bed management
- Scheduling
- Patient anxiety
- Winter resilience
- Elective recovery trajectories
Theatres are the engine room of hospital productivity.
When visibility fails there, the entire system feels it.
Why This Matters Even More After Last Month’s Autumn Budget
Last month, Rachel Reeves announced in her Autumn Budget:
- £300m in new NHS technology investment
- 250 Neighbourhood Health Centres
- A renewed push to cut waiting lists and boost productivity
This is welcome and important investment.
But it also increases operational complexity.
Today, devices move between:
- Wards
- Theatres
- Recovery
- A&E (Accident & Emergency)
- ICU
- Community nursing teams
- GP practices
- Neighbourhood Health Centres
- Patients’ homes
If visibility is inconsistent within a single hospital, how do we expect to maintain consistent visibility across entire neighbourhoods and community pathways?
The NHS cannot improve flow, safety, productivity or waiting lists without knowing where its essential medical devices actually are — in real time.
Innovation Requires Culture Change, Not Just Funding
Funding helps.
But the real barriers to progress are cultural and structural:
- CAPEX-heavy procurement
- Frameworks that take years to navigate
- Specifications written too early and too rigidly
- Risk-averse governance
- Slow decision-making cycles
The NHS doesn’t need “bigger innovation.”
It needs faster, lighter cycles of improvement:
- Small tests
- Rapid iteration
- Weekly co-design
- Simple, scalable SaaS models
- Continuous improvement over large, slow deployments
This is exactly how Floki has been built — heartbeat cycles, NHS-led design, and solutions shaped directly by staff experience.
What Improved, Real-Time Visibility Unlocks
Finding equipment faster is only the beginning.
Once Trusts achieve improved, real-time visibility, they can:
1. Predict demand
Spot usage patterns and pre-position devices before they’re requested.
2. Remove bottlenecks
Identify black holes or departments where equipment routinely disappears or sits idle.
3. Support neighbourhood-level healthcare
As care moves across homes, clinics and new Neighbourhood Health Centres, visibility enables safe, efficient shared equipment pools.
Visibility becomes foresight.
Foresight becomes flow.
Flow becomes safer, calmer, faster care.
Why This Work Matters to Me
In 2016, I spent eight months on crutches, being moved from place to place, and I saw first-hand the strain NHS staff were under. I made a promise to myself: once I was back on my feet, I would try to help in a practical way.
Not with criticism.
Not with complicated tech.
But with something useful and simple that would give staff back time, clarity and calm.
Because visibility isn’t glamorous — but it is transformative.
It helps NHS staff do their jobs more safely.
It reduces waste the system can no longer afford.
And it supports flow at every level of care.
A Final Word
Winning the award wasn’t about us — it was recognition of NHS staff who have shaped this journey through their insight, experience and willingness to collaborate.
Our mission is simple:
Help the NHS see clearly, act early, and waste less time, money and energy.
And we’re only just getting started.
Fen
Founder & CEO, Floki Health