How imminent is imminent? This is the question that trust IT directors, suppliers, and others with an interest in the outcome of the second round of the tech fund have been asking themselves since the autumn. The announcement of who has won what from the ‘Integrated Digital Care Technology Fund’ has been pending for three months, and is pending still.

To find out what kind of projects are being held up, and what impact the delay is having on them, EHI is running a short, confidential ‘tech fund 2 delay’ survey. With the end of the financial year just three months away, is it already too late to spend the money sensibly? Have some projects already been dumped?

Or is this just the kind of thing we have to expect in an election year, when the papers have decided there is a winter crisis, and the government has to be seen to be throwing cash at it? Do let us – and other EHI readers - know. A good response might even dislodge the announcement.

Meantime, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens seems to have decided that a new, digital front door for the NHS might help to stop people piling into A&E; in which case, he might like to find out whatever happened to the ‘integrated customer service platform’ and the endless plans to reorganise NHS Choices and NHS 111.

No news on tech fund 2? Take our survey

NHS England is still unable to say when the details of the trusts that won money from the second round of the technology fund will be released.

Stevens calls for digital NHS front door

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has called for the creation of a digital urgent care ‘front door’ for the health service, as the performance of A&E has become an early general election issue.

Frank Hester recognised in honours

TPP founder and chief executive, Frank Hester, has been given an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for services to healthcare.

RNOH to implement TPP e-prescribing

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust has signed a contract with TPP for its e-prescribing and e-discharge systems, with plans to roll it out by the end of the year.

Coming up, in 2015

A clear direction for NHS IT was set in 2014; but could be disrupted by the general election due on 7 May.

The Health Service Journal, the NHS management bible, does like a list these days. And so it was that it opened 2015 with its annual ‘HSJ 100’ list of “the people with the greatest influence on health policy and the NHS.” Predictably, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens and health secretary Jeremy Hunt have swapped places at the very top, with shadow health secretary Andy Burnham leaping upwards in an election year.

But what is this? The national director for patients and information, Tim Kelsey, has dropped spectacularly from number 17 in the list to number 42. Even though IT is supposed to be a priority, and Mr Stevens is going around saying how he’d like a nice, shiny new digital front door for a health service as part of his big reform plans. What could have happened?

Plymouth hoes the way

Plymouth Community Healthcare has been rolling out TPP’s SystmOne over the last 12 months, and was the first site to use its mental health module. Sam Sachdeva goes to see progress.

“Dare we ask about the pump priming for all these ‘connected things’ – or has the IDCR [Integrated Digital Care Record] funding now been kicked into the long-grass?”

“For the future it is clear we also need a fundamental redesign of the NHS urgent care ‘front door’ – A&E, GPs, 999, 111, out of hours, community care and social services.”

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens outlines where £700 million of ‘winter pressures funding has gone, but says a new approach is needed to avert a ‘winter crisis’ in the future, as part of bigger reform plans.