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About one in five NHS trust across England and Wales this year submitted a bid for a slice of the £75m cash pot set aside by the government to support the rollout of e-prescriptions.

In early 2018 the government announced the creation of the funding to support its goal of ensuring all trusts across the country have implemented the technology by 2021. During the 2018/19 year, 13 trusts that were identified as having made little progress in deploying e-prescribing platforms were awarded a cumulative £16m.

All of these have now begun work on rolling out the technology, according to minister of state for care Caroline Dinenage.

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In answer to a written parliamentary question from Tory MP Steve Double, Dinenage added that 48 trusts submitted bids to the second wave of funding. These submissions are currently being reviewed. 

“A further round of funding is also planned for 2020/21,” she added. “Additionally, the Global Digital Exemplar programme is providing funding to support the roll-out of new, integrated technologies including e-prescribing and closed-loop medicines administration and will share their learning as they make progress.”

The 48 trusts who bid for 2019/20 funding represent more than a fifth of the total of 233 English and Welsh NHS trusts. This includes 135 acute non-specialist trusts, 17 acute specialist trusts, 54 mental health trusts, 17 trusts that are community providers, and 10 ambulance trusts.