GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2025


Harnessing the power of Scan4Safety


The GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2025 is leading the charge for a safer, smarter and more connected health service. The Clinical Services Journal provides an insight into this year’s hot topics at the conference, the keynote speakers and the progress that has been achieved across UK Trusts.


The GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2025 is set to be the most significant yet, bringing together healthcare leaders, policymakers and technology innovators to shape the future of care and digital transformation. Taking place at the QEII Centre in London on 29–30 April, this seventh edition of the conference will provide critical insights into how GS1 standards are enhancing efficiency, traceability and ensuring safer, smarter healthcare delivery across the UK. As the digital transformation continues at pace, the need for accurate, interoperable data has never been more pressing. This will be critical if the UK government is to deliver on its three key priorities for healthcare: shifting care from hospitals to communities, advancing from analogue to digital systems, and moving from treating illness to prevention. The conference will highlight how GS1 standards support each of these objectives, providing a common foundation that enhances patient safety, enables supply chain efficiency and strengthens data transparency.


The power of Scan4Safety A key focus of the event will be Scan4Safety, the pioneering programme that is revolutionising the way the NHS captures and uses data. Scan4Safety was first launched in England


in 2016 by the Department of Health and Social Care when six NHS “demonstrator” Trusts were tasked with the implementation of GS1 standards to uniquely identify every person, every product, and every place. Over the course of the two-year programme,


the Trusts reported 140,000 clinical hours released back to frontline care, £5M in recurrent


inventory savings and £9M in non-recurrent inventory savings. If implemented fully across the acute sector in England, this would equate to approximately 3.2M hours of clinical time saved, £116M recurrent inventory savings and £210M non-recurrent inventory savings. Today, dozens more NHS Trusts in England


are harnessing the power of Scan4Safety. More than 50 per cent are driving inventory management improvements with 40 per cent of those scanning at the point of care to improve traceability and patient safety. Progress has been made across the UK with


Scotland and Wales both introducing their own national Scan4Safety programmes and Northern Ireland progressing GS1 standards adoption. By implementing barcode scanning at the


This event provides a crucial platform to drive forward the adoption of standards that enhance patient safety, improve operational efficiency and support digital transformation.


40 www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I April 2025


point of care, Scan4Safety is enabling healthcare providers to uniquely identify products, patients and processes with unparalleled accuracy. This ensures that the right patient receives the right treatment at the right time, reducing errors and the risk of unnecessary harm. With Scan4Safety expanding across the four nations, the conference will explore the programme’s progress and the wider impact of GS1 standards on the healthcare sector.


Supporting national policy The conference comes at a pivotal moment, following the government’s mandate for barcode scanning and prioritisation of Scan4Safety in the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial. This policy change and priority shift underscores the critical role of digital technology in healthcare, ensuring that standardised data capture becomes embedded across the health service. In addition to the government’s digital-first agenda, sessions will also explore where GS1 standards align with other national healthcare policies. Keynotes will spotlight topics such as, the DHSC’s Medical Technology Strategy, the NHS Outcomes and Registries programme, NHS Supply Chain’s In-Trust Inventory Management and Point of Care Scanning programme, and the New Hospital Programme to name a few.


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