£100m pot for “digital excellence” centres

Selected trusts in England are being asked to compete for access to a £100 million funding pot to become “centres of global digital excellence”.

NHS England has chosen 26 of the most digitally advanced trusts to apply for up to £10 million each in funding. Ten to 16 trusts will then be awarded the money to invest in digital infrastructure and specialist training, and become world leaders in health informatics.

The trusts chosen will have to demonstrate comprehensive use of electronic patient records, information sharing across the local health and care system and robust data security.

In turn, the trust would be expected to share their expertise and resource with “other organisations through networks”.

An NHS spokeswoman said the £100 million has come from the existing settlement for paperless 2020, the £1.3 billion earmarked by health secretary Jeremy Hunt in Feburary.

It will be given to the selected trusts for half revenue, and half capital, she said.

The trusts chosen will be expected to make investment in technology and also be part of phased approach to creating digital excellence across the board. By focusing on shared learning, NHS England wants local networks to be created and so ensuring all trusts are brought up to the same standard.

Professor Keith McNeil, chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said he hoped the centres would be a core of a “national movement”.

“It is evident the benefits of investing in and optimising use of digital technology to improve efficiency and enhance care is more widely understood but we are not yet realising these benefits at scale or sufficiently quickly.”

The winners will be announced at the NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo event on 7 and 8 September in Manchester.

Paul Rice, head of technology strategy at NHS England, said there was already a set of acute providers in England that were “world class” on optimising digital technology.

“By stepping up to become world class they can join the most digitally advanced healthcare organisations across the globe and help deliver a sustainable and transformed NHS.”

The first wave of centres will be selected from the acute sector, but NHS England intend to establish them in community, mental health and ambulance settings as well.

The 26 trusts invited to apply were selected using the NHS’s digital maturity self-assessment index. However there were not the trusts with the top 26 index scores.

The trusts run a wider variety of systems, including Cerner millennium, Epic, TrakCare, Emis, TPP, IMS Maxims, System C Medway, and Allscripts. 

North region
– Airedale NHS Trust
– Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust
– City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
– Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
– North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
–  Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
– Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Trust
– Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
– The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Midland and east region
– Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
– Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
– The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
– University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
– West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

London Region
– Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
– Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
– Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
– Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
– Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

South Region
– Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
– Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
–  University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
– University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
– Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust