NHS awards scheme to encourage healthcare innovations

A new NHS awards programme has been launched in order to encourage the healthcare industry to devise innovative solutions to key challenges.

The NHS Innovation Challenge Prizes initiative will see awards presented to those who are able to provide breakthrough discoveries in a number of specified areas that will deliver value to the health service and its patients.

These include providing earlier cancer diagnosis, better management of pregnancy and increased independence for kidney failure patients, as well as finding new ways of reducing primary care attendance and medicine wastage.

All applications are to be judged by an expert panel of medical scientists, academics and industry experts.

Announcing the awards, health minister Lord Howe said: "As the NHS enters a period where the budget will be stretched further than ever before, delivering more for less and achieving major clinical breakthroughs to transform patient outcomes has never been more important."

Earlier this month, the NHS launched a consultation on a simplified new healthcare education and training system that will be more reflective of patient need.