Healthtech Pigeon 70% of NHS digital tools have no legal safety sign-off
Nov 9, 2025
Dr. Keith Grimes, a clinical safety and healthtech expert from Curistica, joins James Somauroo to discuss the alarming findings from their study on NHS digital safety compliance. They reveal that a staggering 70% of digital systems lack safety assurance documentation. Keith emphasizes the importance of clinical governance for safe technology deployment and discusses the limitations of Clinical Safety Officers. The conversation also covers the challenges in primary care responsibility, the need for robust governance to foster technology adoption, and introduces AI airlocks for piloting new tech safely.
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Scale Masks Local Safety Risks
- The study found 14,747 digital systems with 70% lacking documented safety assurance.
- Local deployment decisions create a critical 'last mile' of safety risk that manufacturers' docs alone don't cover.
Apply DCB 'Last Mile' Checks
- Use the DCB standard to assess whether a product's safety case still holds in your local context.
- Apply structured reviews, monitor performance, and commit to ongoing improvement after deployment.
Collecting Compliance Via FOI Requests
- Keith describes using Freedom of Information requests to collect compliance data from 239 organisations.
- About 85% responded and 81% gave full or partial information, revealing wide variation in compliance.