Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and The Walton Centre have been announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, as part of the second wave of trusts welcomed on to the Digital Aspirant Programme.     

The Digital Aspirant Programme is a national digital scheme to support NHS trusts to improve their digital maturity and in turn help enable better health, better care, financial sustainability and better experiences for our staff and patients. 

The scheme achieves this by providing funding which trusts match with their own investment in digital initiatives. 

NHSX is providing up to £6m over the next three years to help seven trusts, including LHCH and The Walton Centre, deliver their digital ambitions.

Jane Tomkinson, Chief Executive of LHCH, said: “Today’s announcement is more great news for LHCH. Recently we were pleased to launch our new digital strategy, Digital Excellence, which identifies significant ambitions to deliver digital excellence for patients, staff and populations. 

“Our inclusion in the Digital Aspirant programme, with the national investment, will play a pivotal role in supporting our digital ambitions at LHCH.”

Justin Griffiths, Head of IT at The Walton Centre, said: “I am very proud and excited for the next three years now that we have been awarded the Digital Aspirant status. This is going to allow us to complete our migration to a fully Electronic Patient Record System that will benefit not only our clinical staff, but also help support our commitment to patient care. 

“Technology provided by this funding is going to allow our services to join up like never before.” 

Announcing the funding, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said: “It’s very important that this is right across the NHS and social care, including mental health and community trusts, which can feel the benefits of digital transformation just as much as acute trusts.”

Sonia Patel, chief information officer at NHSX, said: “Our ambition is to level-up NHS trusts to ensure they have the critical digital foundations to operate in a modern NHS. This marks the second of what will be many waves of Digital Aspirants and I would encourage those not receiving funding today to work on their plans so they can join a future wave of the programme.”