IT Spending by Western European Healthcare Will Reach $14.1 Billion in 2021

According to IDC, IT spending by the Western European healthcare sector is forecast grow from $12.9 billion in 2016 to $14.1 billion in 2021. The CAGR is forecast at 1.9%, with growth slowed down by hardware (-0.9% CAGR), while software (4.9% CAGR) and IT services (1.6% CAGR) will grow at modest rates.

Overall, the public healthcare segment continues to grow faster than private healthcare (2.0% vs. 1.6%) despite the high priority of cost-control initiatives in the agendas of European governments. Hospitals represent around 62% of total Western European healthcare IT spending, and that is expected to grow at 1.9% CAGR to 2021.

"Expectations for growth of healthcare providers' IT spending for 2018 are overall positive. For 2018, IDC forecasts Western European healthcare IT spending to grow to $13.5 billion. We expect the nascent interest in value-based healthcare (VBHC) to drive transformation initiatives across Europe," said Silvia Piai, EMEA senior research manager, IDC Health Insights.

The report shows that the top 5 Western European economies are expected to represent 72% of total healthcare IT spending in 2016. The U.K. remains the biggest IT market, with growth rates at around 2.3%, still slightly below the total market growth due to uncertainties over government budget adjustments after the Brexit agreement and the possible impact on limitation of freedom of movement on the NHS workforce.

Germany continues to be the fastest-growing market among the top 5 countries, with a 3.5% CAGR in 2016-2021, followed by France. Italy returned to stable growth of around 1.4%, driven by regional initiatives around patient services modernizations and regional electronic health record (EHR) platforms.