The NHS Confederation has announced the creation of a fund that matches cash put up by teaching trusts with backing from institutional investors to spread innovation across the NHS.

It is expected the fund will initially be worth tens of millions of pounds, but it could grow to £250m.

Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said 12 trusts had already signed up to the scheme.

Ideas developed in the NHS would be registered in a directory. The network of trusts would then fast-track the adoption of the new technology.

The trusts and investors would share in any future profit from innovation.

The scheme aims to turn NHS ideas into a “commercial reality for the benefit of patients, and in turn, trusts themselves”, Mr Farrar said.

He said the current time lag between proving a product was effective and its mass deployment had been seen solely as industry’s problem rather than the NHS’s.

But he said in practice industry had to recover the extra cost of this delay by charging higher prices later.

Mr Farrar said: “We all know the NHS needs to move out of the slow lane on the spread of innovation. There could be real opportunities to improve care for patients if we can make this work.”

Trusts involved in the scheme include Central Manchester Hospitals and University College London Hospitals foundation trusts.

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