Over £220m To Boost Innovation In The NHS

A £220 million fund will be made available to encourage innovation within the NHS, Health Minister Lord Darzi announced , during an event at the Science Museum in London to mark the launch of 'Innovation for a Healthier Future' - a series of initiatives to nurture and reward innovation within the NHS.

Building on the Government's firm commitment to create an innovative health service, England's ten Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) will each receive £2 million this year, and £5 million in each of the following four years to support frontline NHS staff in developing innovative ideas.

The cash will be invested directly into a combination of projects on the ground and at regional level, speeding up the time it takes for innovative solutions to get from design bench to NHS bedside.

This will benefit patients directly and increase the quality of the care they receive.

Many innovative ideas in the NHS risk not being developed due to a lack of funding. The fund has been made available to help bring these ideas about and empower the inspiration of the 1.3 million NHS staff and their colleagues in social care who make a difference each day to people's lives.

Lord Darzi said: "This announcement is a huge step forward in implementing the recommendations set out last summer in my strategy on the future of the NHS.

"NHS staff have told me that accessing the funds to make ideas become reality can be a struggle and as a result, many great ideas never get realised.

"That is why I am delighted to announce that we now have a £220 million innovation fund available to get those ideas off the bench and to patient bedsides, day centres or GP surgeries.

"We know that around 40% of the world's inventions over the past 50 years originated in the UK and that the NHS is rightly recognised as a world leader in the development of innovative treatments and technologies - but we can be better at putting those good ideas into action and these funds will help do exactly that."

(JM/BMcC)