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Patients to benefit from £30 million Nursing Technology Fund investment

Seventy five NHS Trusts across the country will benefit from £30 million to buy technology for nurses, midwives and care staff.

It is the first round of investment of the £100m ‘Nursing Technology Fund’ which was announced by Prime Minister, David Cameron. NHS England launched the application process for funding last year.

The funding will be used to buy technologies such as digital pens, tablets and clinical software to support nurses and midwives to develop modern practices and do their jobs more easily.

Trusts applying for the funding had to demonstrate how their technology projects would deliver real improvements to patient care and safety.

Making the announcement about the successful projects at the national NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo conference in Manchester today, Beverley Bryant, Director of Strategic Systems and Technology at NHS England, said:

“This is about using modern technology to support and facilitate staff in providing compassionate and personalised nursing care.

“It is about making life easier for staff – for example a digital pen can improve record keeping and reduce paperwork, a tablet or ipad can mean a community nurse can work on the go without needing to make as many trips back to the office, which means more time spent with patients. Also, mobile IT devices that can be used at the bedside puts valuable information at a nurses’ fingertips. This is ultimately about enabling nurses and midwives to improve the care they provide for patients.

Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England, added:

“Equipment like this simply wasn’t available as little as 20 years ago and using this kind of modern technology is part of the innovative and new ways of working we need to embrace in tackling modern health challenges.

“We received an amazing response to application process and the decisions on choosing the successful projects have been difficult. It has always come back to one key question – how will this project deliver real, practical benefits for nurses, midwives and care staff and their patients.”

Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt said:

“Innovative new technologies such as digital pens, tablets and clinical software mean that staff can spend more time with patients, not paperwork, and offer safer care.

“This fund will allow nurses and midwives to develop new, more modern ways of working that will benefit staff and patients.”

NHS Trusts providing hospital, community, mental health and ambulance services were eligible to apply for funding.  Applications had to be led by nurses and demonstrate that funding will be used to buy technology that nurses and midwives can see will lead to improvements in care for patients.

A list of the successful Trusts and case studies are available on the NHS England website.