ROI demands delay tech fund

An announcement of initial allocations from the £260m ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards’ Technology Fund is being delayed by stringent Treasury demands on the Return on Investment trusts must deliver, EHI understands.

An email was sent to NHS trusts that applied for funding last month by NHS England urging them to “bear with us a little longer”, but offering no update on when to expect an announcement, which was originally due by the end of October.

It says NHS England’s formal assessment process for successful applicants was concluded at the start of November, but there have been “unforeseen delays with Treasury approval of the overall funding envelope”.

“We are aware of the impact of this on your local decision making processes and are doing everything within our powers to remedy the situation,” it adds.

The growing delay means timescales are extremely tight for being able to spend the first £90m of technology fund money by April next year. Some IT directors are now questioning whether this is still possible and whether the money is set to be lost and returned to Treasury.

A possible complicating factor is No 11 Downing Street and the desire of George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to make headline catching announcements on the NHS in this Thursday’s Autumn Statement.

EHI understands that the Treasury is insisting that NHS trusts show they will achieve a 1.5 x ROI for central monies in the current year. The demand will rise to 2.5 x ROI on investment for the next financial year.

The one area thought to be singled out for a lower ROI demand is e-prescribing, on the basis of clinical safety benefits. But even e-prescribing is required to show a one for one ROI return.

Several NHS IT directors who spoke to EHI over the past week said these ROI levels will be challenging to evidence and deliver. Trusts must commit to match any funds allocated from the £260m central pot.

Others told EHI that the real issue is not ROI, but the ability to spend the money this year.

One experienced NHS IT director in the South West said: “given the main criteria of the tech fund judging was meant to be deliverability in the time available, they are now seriously at risk of not giving us any time to actually deliver.”

Shearwater director Markus Bolton said 1.5 or 2.5 ROIs should be achievable on a well planned and executed project.

“The Treasury problem may be with the hard evidence,” he said.

“There is a fair amount of work required to establish and cost the ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ positions and associated benefits accurately and some trusts may be intending to carry out and incur the cost of this more detailed benefits work once the tech fund position is clearer.”

Questions also exist over the eagerly anticipated £100m Nursing Technology Fund, first announced over a year ago.

This was due to launch immediately following the ‘Safer Hospitals Safer Wards’ announcement in October, with the awards made by Christmas. With the fund still to launch it may well prove a casualty of Whitehall delays and political time-tabling.