A letter to integrated care boards, NHS acute trusts and regional directors sets out information on the expanded urgent and emergency care capital incentive scheme, with details on how submitted data and metrics could see organisations rewarded for improvements they make to the timeliness of patient care.
Penned by NHS England’s national director for integrated urgent and emergency care and deputy chief operating officer Sarah-Jane Marsh and deputy chief executive and chief financial officer Julian Kelly, the letter shares updates to the scheme following discussion with ICB and trust leaders on how to support organisations in meeting the agreed target of 76 percent for-hour performance in A&E.
Based on the trust’s footprint data, the 10 trusts delivering the highest level of four-hour performance during March 2024 will each received £2 million in funding. The 10 trusts delivering the greatest percentage point improvement in March as compared to January will also receive £2 million, whilst the next 10 trusts delivering the greatest improvement during the same period will receive £1 million each.
No change is required in terms of how data is submitted from trusts to NHSE; the letter can be found in full here.
Last month, HTN explored the papers from the latest NHSE board meeting, in which the digital portfolio was discussed in full including the NHS App, primary care and the federated data platform. Click here to read.
NHS England also recently published a leadership competency framework for board members, setting out the need to “recognise and champion” developments in data, digital and technology in order to support long-term transformation.
Also in February, we reported on an update from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust with regards to the role played by the trust’s virtual ward in helping to keep frail older people out of A&E, with figures demonstrating “continued improvement” with 50.6 percent of seriously ill patients treated within four hours in January 2024, compared to 32.2 percent in January 2023.
