New board headed by McNeil

A new Digital Delivery Board will be overseen NHS England chief clinical information officer Keith McNeil, who is assuming growing responsibility for delivering the digital health agenda.

The new board will replace the Department of Health’s informatics portfolio management board, and NHS Digital will be expecting to report to it on delivery, financial forecasts and benefit achievement.

It is the second new appointment this month for McNeil, who only started as NHS England’s first national chief clinical information officer in July.

The former head of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who resigned in September last year following difficulties with trust’s Epic EPR deployment, has also been appointed chairman of the National Information Board, replacing interim chair John Newton.

NHS England confirmed the appointment of McNeil and said he and NHS England chief information officer Will Smart will be leading the new body.

Digital Health News understands other appointees include the Department’s Tim Donohoe, NHS Digital’s Beverley Bryant and NHS England’s Matthew Swindells.

The board is dominated and led by representative from NHS England, but a NHS Engalnd spokeswoman said it did not sit under any one organsaition and was rather an "NHS board".

The new structure was part of wider set of announcement in the NHS Shared Planning Guidance, released today.

The guidance reveals that new central funding will be allocated to Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas and trust will have to meet new requirements for digital services, such as e-referrals, for all NHS contracts.

The guidance suggests the delivery board will be heavily involved in the delivery and monitoring of the allocation of the £4.2 billion for technology and digital transformation announced by health secretary Jeremy Hunt earlier this year.

“The £4.2bn of additional transformation funding for technology programmes will be subject to a consolidated approvals process which brings together NHS England, DH and NHS Digital funding as part of the National Information Board and associated new Digital Delivery Board.” the guidance said.