Working in the health and care system can be hugely challenging but is often incredibly rewarding, with the decisions you make on a day-to-day basis often directly impacting the lives of patients, carers and their families. This brings huge responsibility but also a sense of privilege and the ability to make what feels like a meaningful contribution through your vocation.

Of course there’s also a personal interest in making sure that NHS and social care services are the best they can be – as we and our families are all patients and service users to some degree during our lifetime. I have been lucky enough to enjoy a varied career in the NHS spanning Public Health, commissioning and service transformation; working directly with clinicians and NHS staff to improve health outcomes and streamline service delivery to provide the best value, in the right place, at the right time for patients.

Working with clinicians, industry innovators, patients and NHS commissioners to innovate, demonstrate and evaluate new ideas is incredibly exciting. Some of the projects we support will revolutionise how, when and where services will be provided in the future; embracing new technology, medical devices and pathways to improve outcomes and patient experience.

Our recent achievements include: reducing time to diagnosis and making significant cost savings in the identification of ADHD in children and young adults, improving the detection of Atrial Fibrillation resulting in the East Midlands leading the way nationally for the number of patients receiving life-saving anti-coagulation treatment and reducing appointment waits by moving monitoring services for diabetic foot ulcer patients out of hospital into the community. All three initiatives help the system run more smoothly, save money and improve care for patients and their success is testament to the dedication and resilience of the EMAHSN project leads and wider stakeholders.

The satisfaction of spreading proven ideas and effective practices from one organisation to another to improve care and reduce unwarranted variations in performance is my key motivator. Seeing the adoption and spread of ‘home grown’ health innovations across the region and beyond is even more rewarding. We are currently recruiting two posts that will be crucial to the future success of healthcare innovation in the region, a Deputy Head of Innovation Programme Delivery and a Senior Innovation Project Lead. Full details can be found on www.jobs.nhs.uk and we are looking forward to welcoming new members to our dynamic team in early 2019.

Author

Dara Coppel - Head of Innovation Programme Delivery

Dara leads the implementation, sustainability and spread of national and local innovation programmes and manages the project Management team.