Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced that 32 more NHS trusts will join the Digital Aspirant programme, which helps NHS trusts raise their digital maturity.

Announced at Digital Health Rewired 2021, the move will see seven of the new trusts receive up to £6 million each over the next three years. The rest will get £250,000 seed funding to help them develop business cases for further digital investment.

The seven to receive up to £6 million each are: University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust; Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust; East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust; West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust; Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust.

The first cohort of Digital Aspirants have made huge progress despite - or often driven by - the pressures of the current coronavirus pandemic. In a blog post, NHSX highlights the example of St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals, which has rolled out telehealth across almost 50 specialties. This work was a crucial part of the trust’s response to the pandemic, enabling them to provide safe outpatient care remotely.

Additionally, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has fixed a number of historical issues with their IT infrastructure - including upgrading their wireless network, clinical servers and software upgrades as well as installing 500 additional wireless access points.

The Global Digital Exemplar created over 160 blueprints - simple, step-by-step guides that Digital Aspirants are now using. They in turn will produce blueprints of their own.