STAFF at a hospital trust are putting away their pens and notepads and moving towards electronic ways of working.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has received £1.35 million to invest in new technology as part of its ambition to be ‘paperless’ in the future.

The money was awarded by the Integrated Digital Care Fund to support the trust in moving from paper-based clinical record keeping to an integrated electronic system.

The fund - previously known as the Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund - was launched in May 2013 by NHS England and the Secretary of State for Health to improve information flow across care settings.

Digital systems have the potential to benefit patients and clinicians by enabling safer care through the sharing of clinical information, hopefully leading to improved clinical decision-making.

It is the latest investment to come into the trust – last year it received £1.4 million from NHS England’s Nurse Technology Fund on two projects.

Medical director Richard Wight said: “We are beginning to move our IT services forward with pace. Investment is coming through on the core IT infrastructure and this is laying the foundation for us to expand our digital enhancements to support improved care.

“In a little over a year, we have successfully been awarded £2.8 million of investment in our clinical systems. This is a tremendous achievement and supports us delivering an increasingly effective service that meets the growing demands of clinicians and patients.”