This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
£4.2bn of NHS budget set aside for IT projects
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that £4.2 billion of the government’s investment in the NHS budget, will be earmarked for IT projects.
This follows Hunt’s announcement on the Andrew Marr Show that £1.8bn will be invested to support the government’s vision to achieve a paperless NHS by 2020.
Beverly Bryant, director of digital technology, told delegates at a Westminster Health Forum that the NHS had been hard at work in strategising a plan for the £4.2 billion by March. Bryant maintained that while the plans had not been finalised, £750 million is expected to fund out-of-hospital projects.
According to Pulse, the full break down of the £4.2 billion includes: £1.8 billion to create a paper free NHS, which includes £900m of capital investment to put in place primary and secondary IT systems that will work together seamlessly, with an extra £400m for running costs; £1 billion for infrastructure, cyber security and data consent; £750 million to transform out-of-hospital care, including digital primary care, medicines, social care digitalisation and digital urgent and emergency care; £400 million for enabling the NHS to become digital, including a new website NHS.uk, apps, free Wi-fi and telehealth; and £250 million for data for outcomes and research.
Bryant maintained that any investment to improve GP IT system security would be delivered through CCGs.
In an interview with Pulse, she said: “A lot of the patient facing money sits in the transforming primary care bucket, not the infrastructure bucket. We’re busy planning at the moment, and I’ve come under pressure to tell you all [journalists] what it’s all for when we’re right in the middle of a planning run.”
The investment is part of the Department of Health’s (DoH) wider aim to get 10 per cent of patients using online services, such as viewing their medical records, appointment booking and repeat prescriptions.
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