Tech fund trusts prepare to press go

Trusts that have won technology fund money are preparing to press go on their projects.

EHI reported on Thursday that the £260m ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Technology Fund’ had been approved by the Treasury.

Those that received emails informing them that their bids have been successful must now agree and sign a memorandum of understanding before the money is released.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust empowerment programme manager David Newton said it was exciting to hear that a collaborative bid with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been successful.

South London and Maudsley implemented a personal health record for patients in May 2012 called Myhealthlocker, which allows mental health patients to access their care plans, provide feedback on their treatment and track their progress.

University College London Hospitals has a project called MumsTalk, which is a social network for pregnant women and new mothers.

Newton said the funding will go towards integrating MumsTalk and the DrDoctor appointment booking and feedback tool into Myhealthlocker.

The platform will then be deployed at UCLH, but will not initially be built into the trust’s electronic patient record.

Newton said the trust split the project into both funding pools so will receive about 40% of funding in this financial year and 60% in the next. “As soon as we get the MOU sorted out we’re ready to get going,” he said.

“It’s exciting to be working with another hospital and taking Myhealthlocker into different condition groups.”

Director of ICT at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Colin Sweeney, is pleased to have all three of his trust’s bids accepted for funding. Two are for money which must be spent in this financial year.

Sweeney said the electronic document management project at Princess Royal University Hospital, Bromley is already in procurement and the trust is hoping to make a decision on a supplier before Christmas.

The second is a project with Tactix4 to connect the trust’s open source integration engine to the Patient Demographic Service, to improve the population of NHS Numbers on its systems.

Sweeney said that once developed, the open source solution can be used by other trusts. The third project is for funding in the next financial year and will bring the trust’s renal specialty system in line with open source standards.

A fourth collaborative bid with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley has been asked to provide more information in order to apply for the next round of funding.

Sweeney said the need to spend the money so soon means King’s has to move some of its priorities around.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust IM&T director Adrian Byrne said the trust has won funding for e-prescribing in critical care.

The project is already in procurement and the funding is split between this financial year and next. Byrne said he is “reasonably confident” of getting the first pot of money spent by April.

“This will help to achieve better quality outcomes in critical care and have a big influence on patient safety,” he said.

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust director of IM&T Christine Walters said: “We secured £4.2m which is fantastic news! This will help to ensure that we make rapid progress on moving forward with our digitised patient record.”

A number of trusts spoken to by EHI last Friday had not yet heard back about their applications, but it appears all applicants have now been informed. One EHI commenter said he is "bitterly disappointed" that his trust has not been awarded any funding.

Others have been told they need to do more work for an application to the second round of the technology fund.