While most CIOs at the National Health Service (NHS) in England agree that electronic patient records are beneficial, a survey has revealed that almost half are worried about meeting a target of going paperless by 2020, Computer Weekly reports.

In fact the survey, conducted by iGov on behalf of OpenText, found that 46% of NHS CIOs are concerned that they will not be able to meet this target.

Initially, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had set the NHS paperless target for 2018, however, this was later revised in NHS England's Personal Health and Care framework which was published in November 2014. The new target states that all NHS organisations must be paperless at the point of care, with integrated electronic patient records in place, by 2020.

When asked about how ready they were for a paperless NHS, nearly two fifths (39%) of the 115 NHS trusts surveyed said they were yet to digitise patient records.

Lack of suitable technology and in-house skills were cited as barriers to going paperless. Three quarters (75%) said that budget restrictions were also causing a problem.

Commenting on the findings, VP of sales UK at OpenText, Mark Bridger, noted it isn't too late for organisations to begin implementing digital strategies.

Bridger said: "My advice would be to think about how your organisation is going to manage all this new data created in a digital healthcare system beyond 2020.

"Take a step back to see the enterprise as a whole – identify where the paper is, engage all members of staff at all levels and think about process flows."

It seems many in the healthcare industry are also thinking about new technologies, such as wearables.