- Ministers unveil £30m Health Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund for NHS
- Grants will speed up the roll out of cutting-edge innovation and new treatments to cut waiting lists and improve patient care
- Local NHS trusts to apply for cash to address community needs
The Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay will today unveil a new £30 million fund to speed up the roll out cutting-edge technology and innovation across the NHS.
The Health Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund will provide cash for local NHS organisations to rapidly adopt new technologies.
It could include tech that helps detect diseases and health conditions sooner, supports patients to get treated in their own homes rather than in hospitals and increases productivity to free up staff time to focus on care.
The establishment of the fund is part of a series of long-term decisions the Government has taken to secure the future sustainability of the NHS, cut waiting lists and ensure patients get the care they need when they need it.
Local NHS teams will be able to bid for cash from the fund to address a need in their community. The funding will be available this year and the first projects are expected to be delivered by April 2024.
This new fund builds on the Conservative record of championing innovation and new technology to cut NHS waiting lists. Our elective recovery plan includes spending £2.1 billion over three years to modernise digital technology on the frontline, improve cyber security and the NHS’s use of data.
Other long-term decisions by the Government to help accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge technology in the NHS include backing the rollout of 86 AI technologies with £123 million of funding. These have already benefited 300,000 patients by improving their care and treatment for health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental health and neurological disorders.
We are also expanding and improving the NHS app to allow people to access their medical records and results digitally.
Health & Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Cutting-edge technology like AI has the potential to transform our healthcare but we need to roll out these innovations faster so that patients receive the benefits as quickly as possible.
“That is why today I am announcing the creation of a new £30-million Health Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund, enabling clinicians to adopt proven technologies that can improve patient care in their local area.
“This fund, resulting from a long-term decision by the Government to build a brighter future for the NHS, will provide new tools to help detect cancer sooner, enable people to receive treatment in the own homes and increase productivity.”