Hunt hears tech fund applications

Health minister Jeremy Hunt is sitting on a panel assessing two trusts’ technology fund applications today.

Care minister Norman Lamb will also attend two trust interviews.

All trusts that applied for the £260m Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund had their top two applications progress to the second round.

This involves trust representatives attending a panel interview in either London or Leeds, where the robustness of their plans is tested.

Hunt has taken a keen interest in the potential for technology to transform the NHS since becoming Secretary of State for Health a year ago.

He announced both the first and second round of the technology fund and both he and Lamb are sitting on interview panels today to hear from trusts applying to the fund.

Beverley Bryant, NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology, is chairing today’s sessions attended by Hunt.

“We are really testing the deliverability of the plans, how robust they are," she said.

“It’s more like a discussion and negotiation, rather than a closed interview process with a pass or fail.”

She said she has been impressed by the level of leadership from trusts applying for funding, with a number of chief executives and medical directors fronting up to answer questions from the panel.

Bryant told EHI that NHS England is still on track to announce the winners of the initial fund, around the end of October.

This first pot of money is worth £90m and must be spent within this financial year.

The remaining £170m of the first round of money will be spent in the next financial year and Hunt this month announced that another £250m will be made available for a second round of the fund.

Bryant said she hopes to be able to give more information about the process and timetable for the second fund in a few weeks.

The original £260m fund is a type of capital called PDC that is only available to trusts, while in the second round a wider range of organisations will be able to apply.

Bryant said NHS England has more time with the second technology fund to ensure all relevant NHS organisations are aware of it.