Tech fund trusts still waiting

A significant number of trusts are still awaiting Treasury approval for their technology fund projects despite some of the money having to be spent within a month.

NHS England has approved £218m in funding from the 'Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Technology Fund' for 234 projects, of which £90m must be spent before the end of this financial year.

Treasury approval for part of the spend was confirmed in December, however projects worth more than £90m are still awaiting Treasury approval after having to resubmit their ‘value for money’ cases before Christmas.

A government spokesperson told EHI there is no delay in the approvals process.

“The government is considering these bids closely to ensure that they represent good value for money and expects that a decision will be made shortly,” the spokesperson said.

To be approved, trusts need to show a VFM of more than 1 for e-prescribing projects, higher than 1.5 for digital records projects and at least 2.4 for the rest.

While the first tranche of money was made available to successful trusts this month, EHI understands that up to half of the £90m that must be spent by April has not been approved for release. The money will be returned to Treasury if not spent within this financial year.

NHS England’s head of technology strategy Paul Rice told EHI earlier this month that trusts awaiting VFM sign-off have been sent draft memorandum of understandings so they can move forward quickly as soon as they get the nod from Treasury.

Trusts with approved projects will not simply lose out if they cannot spend their assigned funding by April as the vast majority also include spend in the next financial year.

Liverpool Heart and Chest, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trusts are among those still waiting to hear from Treasury.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is awaiting confirmation of around £7.5m in funding for three projects which are: eNoting; e-prescribing and medicines administration; and a portal project for sharing electronic patient records with fellow King’s Health Partners, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is also awaiting confirmation of £3.5m in funding for its high profile e-hospital programme.

Papworth Hospital Foundation Trust is partnering with Cambridge on the e-hospital project and has had its £4.5m in funding approved for this work, but it has not yet signed the contract for the project with US supplier Epic.

The partnering arrangement involves the trust moving to a state-of-the-art site outside Cambridge, but has been thrown into doubt as Papworth may now be forced into a merger with Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust.

Other projects that have been fully approved include a £4.2m digital patient records project at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £3.3m for a paediatric e-prescribing project, while University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £1.1m to continue its e-prescribing work.

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £2.3m for an electronic document management project and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has had three bids approved worth £1.3m, which also include EDM

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is getting £1.1m to develop its open source electronic patient record project, Open Eyes, and North Bristol NHS Trust will get nearly £340,000 for work on live bed state and patient flow systems.

Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has had £500,000 approved for clinical documentation and in house cancer register projects, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust is getting £430,000 to spend on order communications and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust will receive £1.1m for work on a vital signs record system.

Three exemplar sites for Integrated Digital Care Records – Cumbria, Bristol and Bradford – have also had funding approved by NHS England but EHI is unsure whether Treasury has given final sign-off for the spend.

If your trust has had a project approved or is awaiting Treasury approval please contact the news team or add a comment below.