2016: the year in review

What a year 2016 was for the West of England AHSN and our member and partner organisations. We asked our team for their favourite highlights from the last 12 months and here’s what they came up with…

	The International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, Gothenburg Attending and presenting at this conference back in April was a privilege. It was wonderful to be around so many people committed to quality improvement and implementing change. Read more.
	Diabetes Digital Coach NHS test bed People with diabetes in the West of England welcomed the news this year that they will get to shape digital innovations to help them self-manage their condition. The Diabetes Digital Coach online service is due to launch in 2017. Read more.
	Awards for our AF project Our Don’t Wait to Anticoagulate project won a number of awards this year including a Pharmaceutical Market Europe (PME) Award, an NHS Recognition Award and a Healthcare Pioneers Award.
	New toolkits We’ve had a really positive response to the numerous online toolkits we’ve launched and refreshed this year, including National Early Warning Score, ED Safety Checklist, Human Factors, MINDSet, PPI, Evidence Works, Evaluation Works, the Improvement Journey, and Don’t Wait to Anticoagulate.
	Healthcare Innovation Programme Back in March we ran another successful four-day training programme for healthcare innovators in partnership with SETsquared. Applications are now open for the 2017 Healthcare Innovation Programme. Find out more.
	NEWS at every handover We were able to evidence the first time in the West of England that a patient has been referred from primary care through the ambulance service into the emergency department (ED) using their NEWScore at every handover, showing that change had reached the whole system. It’s brilliant that the patient got the right treatment quickly and got better before leaving ED.
	Making the digital art of the possible a reality More than 130 delegates from across the NHS and local authorities, along with 50 technology suppliers, attended our Digital Art of the Possible event in September to explore how we can work together to move our local digital roadmaps forward. Watch the video of the day here.
	Stakeholder survey highlights our key strengths Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback in this year’s YouGov stakeholder survey. We received an incredible response, with people highlighting how much they appreciated the support we provide around patient safety, quality improvement, leadership, business development, commissioning, collaboration, and the identification, adoption and spread of innovation. Read more.

As Ellie Wetz, one of our Patient Safety Improvement Leads, says in her recent blog post, “We ask busy people to be even busier and <are> constantly humbled by the effort and goodwill we receive in response.”

It is a huge privilege to work alongside so many inspiring and committed colleagues across the West of England, all striving to improve our health and care services, and we very much look forward to working with you in 2017.

Posted on January 3, 2017

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