Enhanced Patient Care and Experience

Funds to support enhanced clinical care and patient experience

Every grant we award supports NHS Borders staff to deliver the best care for our patients and the community.

As a health charity, we’re committed to supporting initiatives that go beyond standard NHS provision, projects that demonstrate innovation, compassion and a clear commitment to quality improvement. We’re especially keen to support proposals that use evidence-based methodologies to drive measurable improvements in care.

Whether you’re looking to pilot a new approach, introduce a therapeutic activity or improve the environment for patients and visitors, we want to hear from you.

Please note: Our charity relies on donations, and oftentimes these are given to specific wards, services or other areas of healthcare. At this time, we can only offer funding where we hold donations for that particular area.

Sometimes, we may need to prioritise between different requests; so we may not be able to support every eligible application.

If you’re thinking about applying, please contact us first so we can talk through what funding might be available.

  • To provide quick access to funding for ideas that:

    Support better health and wellbeing of patients and/or the community; or

    Enhance the experience of patients and visitors throughout the care journey.

  • Enhanced patient information and resources

    Preventative health-related activities related to diet, exercise or mental wellbeing

    Activities to support patients in their rehabilitation or care

    Activities for groups of patients with specific conditions or requirements

    Medical devices or equipment which are state-of-the-art and specialist. Items which cost over £5,000 require endorsement by NHS Borders and may take longer to approve.

    Small improvements to hospital or healthcare environments for patients. All changes or improvements to the hospital environment must be authorised, prioritised, and fully costed by NHS Borders Estates Department.

    Art and design

    Improvements related to accessibility of certain patient groups

    Signage and wayfinding

  • Direct benefit to NHS Borders patients in the hospitals or community

    Be delivered within 6 months (up to £1,000) or 12 months (up to £10,000) of the grant being awarded

    Be straight-forward and simple to deliver

    Be a standalone initiative and not part of a larger project

  • Projects which benefit only one patient

    Medical devices or equipment which should be funded from NHS core budgets

    Furniture, fixtures and fittings that are not exclusively for patient use

    Laptops, tablets, mobile devices, pagers which are a requirement for staff to perform their role or are for individual patient use

    New items to replace existing equipment (including if lost or damaged/condemned)

    Repairs, maintenance or service charges to devices, equipment, furniture, fixtures or fittings

    Staff salaries or backfill, training or development (see Education & Development Grants)

This Small Grants programme is aimed to support easy to implement changes that have an immediate impact on improving patient care.

Funds to support patient-centred projects

Funding may be available up to £10,000.

apply for a small grant (under £10,000)