Region to benefit from share of £760m for NHS modernisation

MULTI-MILLION-POUND improvement projects for health services in the region will be paid for after an NHS funding announcement by Jeremy Hunt.

The Health Secretary said £760m would be made available for modernisation and new buildings around the country. Successful bids for parts of the funding included four projects in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate area which will get up to £24.6m between them.

They include a £1.5m scheme to improve telemedicine in care homes in the region, a project led by Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.

Up to £15m will be allocated to an expansion of Scan for Safety, which uses barcode technology to track patients and their treatments in hospital. The scheme is already up and running at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Rob Webster, chief executive of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, said: “Notification of the funding is really positive and reflects our collective priorities for this wave of funding for people living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.”

Elsewhere, a plan by Humber NHS Foundation Trust to build an inpatient unit for young people with mental health problems will be backed with up to £7.8m of the funding.

The biggest share of the cash, some £312m, was allocated for hospital upgrades in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin area.

Mr Hunt said the funding was the biggest investment of its kind in the NHS in more than 10 years.