Nursing Technology Fund Silhouette Update

NHS England has announced the launch of the long-awaited Nursing Technology Fund Round 2 (NTF), 4 November 2014. The Silhouette digital wound assessment and information management system qualifies as eligible technology, supporting capability building in digital imaging and digital capture of clinical data at the point of care for optimisation of wound management pathways.

Wound management is an important nurse-led field with significant opportunities for technology-enabled improvements in standardisation of wound assessment, treatment planning, documentation, reporting and health informatics. Silhouette is a market leading solution for digital wound imaging, data capture, documentation and reporting. Visit the Silhouette Virtual Workshop to learn more

Here are some key facts extracted from the NTF2 Prospectus as a quick guide:

• NTF is intended to support technology-enabled transformation of nursing practice, enabling the delivery of modern, safer, more effective and more efficient care.
• The fund is aimed at nursing, including nurses, midwives, health visitors and health care assistants, working across all care settings including acute, community, mental health and urgent care.
• Digital Imaging for nursing care and Digital Capture of Clinical Data at point of care are identified as key capabilities that qualify for NTF.
• £35m of capital funding is available, to be distributed as £20-25m spend in FY2014/15 and £10-15m spend in FY2015/16.
• Eligible categories of spend include hardware, software licenses, and spend on resourcing for software configuration, project management and implementation support, subject to local capital classification guidelines.
• The deadline for submission of NTF2 applications is 2 December 2014.
• NHS England aims to advise organisations of the outcome of their application in January 2015.
• Eligible applicants scope has been expanded - NHS Trusts & NHS Foundation Trusts in England. Local authorities in England on behalf of nursing-led services directly provided by the authority. Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) who operate in England.
• There is no matched funding requirement for the capital spend but organisations need to cover NHS capital charges, depreciation and any other consequential revenue or capital run-on costs arising from the initial award.
• Organisations need to indicate which financial year and are limited to 2 applications each, prioritised as 1 and 2.
• Applicants may incorporate non-recoverable VAT charges in the total amount of funding requested from the NTF.

"More effective care will be delivered through, for example, mobile access to digital care records enabling community nurses, midwives and health visitors to make informed decisions when with the patient, or nurses capturing and sharing images of wounds to facilitate a discussion with specialist tissue viability teams." NTF Round 2 Prospectus, November 2014

Silhouette Digital Wound Imaging and Wound Status Data at Point of Care*

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was awarded funds in the first round of the NTF to transform patient care with digital wound assessment capability. The Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic is currently implementing Silhouette for the management of diabetic foot patients in a multi-disciplinary team setting involving nursing, podiatry, diabetes care, vascular surgery, orthotics and microbiology.

View Kings College Hospital Going Digital Case Study

This NTF2 summary is provided as a quick guide only - please refer to the NHS England Nursing Technology Fund Website and Prospectus for full details of the application criteria and process. The NTF2 Prospectus provides a list of eligible technology/capability.

Visit NHS England Nursing Technology Fund webpage

Please contact us to discuss your vision and requirements for Silhouette and your Nursing Technology Fund application plan. We can support you with development of your NTF2 submission.

You need to act fast, contact Entec Health today

*Reproduced by kind permission of Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.