No news on tech fund 2? Take our survey

NHS England is still unable to say when the details of the trusts that won money from the second round of the technology fund will be released.

EHI contacted the commissioning board this week to ask when an announcement might be made about the outcome of bidding to what is formally called the ‘Integrated Digital Care Technology Fund.’

However, a spokesperson was unable to add anything to statements made before Christmas, when an announcement was said to be “imminent, but not confirmed.”

EHI is now running a short, confidential survey about bidding to the fund, the delay, and the impact that this will have on projects.

For example, the survey seeks to establish whether trusts still have a realistic chance of spending any money they do receive for 2014-15 between now and the end of the financial year.

Delays to the first or ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards: Technology Fund’ appear to have contributed to around £60 million of what was billed as £260 million tranche of money being returned to the Treasury.

The two tech funds were launched to support health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s call for a ‘paperless’ NHS by 2018 and NHS England’s subsequent guidance on creating an ‘Integrated Digital Care Record’.

The first fund focused on e-prescribing, document management and scheduling technologies; although, in the event, some trusts won significant sums for well advanced electronic patient record projects.

The second had an additional focus on information sharing, with trusts able to submit bids with other organisations, including councils, for shared records and similar projects.

The £240m tech fund 2 was launched in May, with £160 million scheduled to be spent in 2014-15 and £80 million the following year.

Trusts were given two months to submit bids, so the fund closed in July. The bids were evaluated by September, and an announcement about the outcome was expected in October.

Beverley Bryant, NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology, told EHI Live 2014 in November that she was “beyond sorry” that this had not happened, and indicated that the delay was down to ministers at the Treasury.

Trusts that failed in their bids have apparently been informed by email. However, trusts that may have been successful do not appear to have had this confirmed, or to have been told how much money they have secured.

The survey seeks to confirm this position, to get a sense of what kind of projects may still be in contention, and to find out what impact the delay in announcing the winners is having on them.

The ongoing delay has led to speculation that the size of the overall fund has been cut, and the money diverted to other priorities.  

Earlier this week, EHI reader ‘NHS Person’ left a comment on the site saying that this would be “understandable” if “disappointing” – but that trusts need to know one way or another.

“To tell the unsuccessful or partially successful bidders of their position, with the accompanying 'assume no news is good news, that your bid is not unsuccessful' messages that have been unofficially flowing, is just such poor expectation/comms management,” they wrote.

“Why can't there be a simple statement something like; due to the additional financial pressures associated with Ebola and winter pressures there will not be any announcement regarding the IDCR funding until June 2015 earliest?”

Update, 13 January 2015: The ‘tech fund 2 delay survey’ has been closed, and the results will be reported on EHI and in the EHI newsletter this week. Thank-you to all who took part.