It’s been a huge year across the West of England and the national AHSN Network. Here are some of our favourite bits of news and opinion from the last 12 months.
Supporting healthcare innovators across the West of England
Our 2019 cohort of our Health Innovation Programme, a four day personal development course for healthcare innovators, included 15 fantastic delegates with a diverse range of innovations, from antenatal classes and accessible gyms to an antibiotic susceptibility test. We look forward to seeing how their innovations develop over the next six months! Read the story
Building mental health resilience in young people
This year, we launched Create Open Health alongside Creative England and the Wellcome Trust. This programme was all about finding new entrepreneurial talent with digital ideas, solutions or products that could support positive mental health in young people through community empowerment, communication and collaboration. Watch a film outlining the project
Driving sustainable, responsible and inclusive economic growth
Professor Steve West, Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and West of England AHSN, writes about how the LEP is working alongside authorities across the region to drive sustainable economic growth and improve health and social care for local communities.
Read Steve’s blog
Putting evidence into practice to improve health and care
We’re delighted that we’ll be helping to roll out two new evidence-based improvements across the West of England in 2020. The first project is a perinatal care bundle aimed at reducing brain injury and death in preterm babies, and the second is SHarED, which has been developed by University Hospitals Bristol Emergency Department to support high impact users to Emergency Departments. Read more
Taking a step outside the clinical bubble
In this blog Megan Kirbyshire, Senior Project Manager reflects on how her secondment to spread the ESCAPE-Pain programme gave her the opportunity to see her work in a wider context. ESCAPE-pain is a programme designed to enable patients to self-manage their hip or knee osteoarthritis through education, exercise and behaviour change. Read Megan’s Blog
Celebrating diversity across the AHSN Network
In September, the AHSN Network published a report celebrating diversity across the Network, and setting out pledges to further support the diversity and innovation agenda. The report shares the stories of innovators from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, including two from the West of England. Read more
Supporting people across Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire to discuss emergency care and treatment
In October, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (BNSSG CCG) and Gloucestershire CCG adopted ReSPECT – a form and process which enables patients to have more influence on the health treatment and care they would prefer to receive in the event of an emergency. Find out more
Learning Disabilities Collaborative
The Misfits – a theatre group led by people with learning difficulties gave an outstanding performance at the second West of England Learning Disabilities Collaborative meeting. There was also plenty of time for collaboration, networking and learning, summarised in a short event film. Watch the short film here or read more about the collaborative here
Long Term Plan highlights innovation role of AHSNs
It seems a long time ago now, but the January launch of NHS Long Term Plan ensured we started the year with clear sense of purpose. Its direct emphasis on research and innovation for patient benefit emphasised the key role of AHSNs in supporting our member organisations in embracing this agenda. Over the year we’ve worked with our members on the local strategies that will bring the plan to life. Read more here
Award winning Applied Research Collaborative (ARC) West film
‘Overcoming Barriers: Autism in the Somali community’ tells the stories of Bristol-based Somali families affected by autism, and the professionals who support them. It’s built on research by one of our key partners – National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ARC West (formerly CLAHRC WEST), with whom we’ve worked closely this year. Watch the film here
Planning for a safer future
On World Patient Safety Day, Natasha Swinscoe, national lead for patient safety for the AHSN Network and our Chief Executive, wrote about the AHSN Network’s patient safety plan, and how greater collaboration is needed to make it a success. She also recorded a podcast with Cheryl Crocker, AHSN Network Patient Safety Director Read the blog here or listen to the podcast here
PReCePT wins HSJ Patient Safety Award
In July, PReCePT was crowned Maternity and Midwifery Services Initiative of the Year in the HSJ Patient Safety Awards! Through PReCePT, women going into early labour under 30 weeks are offered magnesium sulphate, which helps to protect their babies’ brains against developing cerebral palsy.
Read more here
Posted on December 16, 2019
