Around 500,000 patients are set to receive faster access to treatment in the NHS thanks to two new programmes that have just been announced. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has recently awarded £7 million of funding for two new projects that aim to speed up treatment access.
Matt Hancock says; “These programmes will fast-track innovations from lab bench to patient bedside and help ensure that NHS patients continue to be the first to benefit from the life-changing treatments developed in this country.”
What are the programmes?
The ‘Test Bed’ projects are a joint scheme between the NHS and the government. The projects aim to harness innovative technologies that can help to improve patient outcomes as well as enhancing the work processes for NHS staff. Furthermore, the projects hope to speed up the uptake across the NHS so that more patients can benefit from the health technology available.
What’s included in the projects?
Some of the funding is being used to test features such as;
- Diabetes management – A new digital platform hopes to transform the way people with diabetes manage their treatment.
- Breast cancer screening – To ensure more effective and accurate screenings, machine learning and artificial intelligence are being introduced.
- Chronic long-term heart failure – Three technologies are being trialled in the hope they can reduce the number of A&E admissions for people with long-term heart conditions.
Rapid uptake projects
As well as the three features listed above, the scheme also includes rapid uptake which hopes to increase the speed of implementation of the technologies across the health and care sector. Rapid uptake projects are set to help a range of conditions such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. The additional £2 million funding is to help with the overcoming of barriers to make treatment options more widespread.
With the products supported by rapid uptake, it hopes that it will help half a million NHS patients access new treatments. In turn, this expects to save the NHS £30 million. The products receiving the support are those that have been developed in this country which not only allows patients to benefit from world-class health innovations, but it also supports UK innovators too.
The government investment aims to show that Britain is a leading place for innovators and hopes to accelerate the modern industry strategy of the government as well as ensuring patients lead happier and healthier lives.
