The Department for Health and Social Care has announced £26 million in funding to help introduce digital prescriptions in the NHS.
The money will be spread among 25 trusts, taking in acute, mental health and community services, as the second wave in the provision of £78 million pot to roll out e-prescriptions across the NHS over three years.
Last year 13 other trusts received shares of £16 million.
The largest award in the new tranche goes to Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which receives £2.5 million. The next largest are £1.5 million each for North Bristol NHS Trust, Barking Havering Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust.
Several others receive around £1.25 million, including Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, and Dartford and Gravesham.
The full list of trusts receiving the funding is here.
Matthew Gould, chief executive of NHSX, said: “Switching from paper prescriptions to digital in our hospitals will make mistakes less likely, free up staff time and ultimately improve patients’ care and health.
“This is part of the NHS Long Term Plan to support health service organisations to use digital technology to improve the care they can give patients, and allow staff to focus on delivering care, rather than on time consuming processes.”
Image by jfcherry, CC BY-SA 2.0 through flickr
