Health Service Focus

Safer hospitals, safer wards

There is not much time left for trusts to apply to the £260m Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards fund set up by NHS England in May to make digital records safer and improve patient safety through e-prescribing. Adam Hewitt reports on the benefits of the fund and how to apply.

The £260m Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund, launched by NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh on May 17, has been operational since July 1 – but trusts have only to the end of July to submit expressions of interest to benefit from funding.

There is no upper limit to funding bids – but the trust must fund match the amount from their own budgets (resource or capital), and clinical ownership and support of the bid and project is an ‘essential criteria’ for getting funding.

It has been called a “critical stepping stone” to achieving a digital NHS by 2018.

In his introduction to the 52-page guidance document explaining more about the fund, NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson says: “Our vision is for a fully integrated digital patient record across all care settings by 2018 and that can only be realised when NHS providers are connected to the flow of information. This document sets out how we will work with our colleagues in secondary care to meet that challenge. It will only be achieved with the commitment and involvement of staff across all disciplines including clinical, management and finance – not just the IT community.”

He said trusts will be free to make their own decisions on how to do this, as long as they are in line with national standards on data security and interoperability.

But he insisted that all providers have to adopt the NHS Number as the primary identifier on all patient data.

The guidance also explains how the new fund answers recommendation 244 of the Francis report, on common information practices, shared data and electronic records.

The term used by NHS England and its Strategic Systems and Technology Directorate managing the new fund is the ‘integrated digital care record’ (IDCR) – though it acknowledges that there are many other overlapping and competing terms in this area.

The guidance also introduces the ‘Clinical Digital Maturity Index’, recognising that different trusts are at different levels of technology adoption in this area: though some services are “established and embedded in routine clinical practice”. These include the Summary Care Record, the Electronic Prescriptions Service, eReferrals and the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

ePrescribing – and the patient safety i m p r o v e m e n t s it brings – are a particular focus of the new fund. On announcing it, the Department of Health said: “Last year at least 11 people died in the NHS because they were given the wrong prescriptions. This fund will be used to increase the use of technology which will help stop drugs being prescribed incorrectly because patients’ notes have been lost.”

The guidance notes: “The scope of ePrescribing has advanced over the years as technology and a more complex care delivery model has evolved.

“NHS trust boards are reminded that the impetus for renewed focus on the benefits of ePrescribing is to improve quality of care, reduce opportunity for error and enable communication of essential information across systems. It is unlikely that short term financial gains will be made. Medium to long term improvements in service quality and patient safety will provide real improvements in efficiency.”

Only NHS trusts (of any kind) can apply, though NHS England says that organisations already benefiting from specific funding are “unlikely” to be funded twice to pursue “exactly the same activity”.

Applications from multiple organisations working in concert would be especially welcomed, it said.

NHS England will confirm which organisations have been successful, and the size of their award, by October 31. The deadline to apply via an expression of interest is Wednesday, July 31 at 5pm.