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I’ve had an absolutely fantastic time at the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN). As a relatively small organisation, currently employing just over 40 people – I am immensely proud of the impact we have in improving patient’s lives. Our success is built on the strong collaborative working relationships we have across the NHS, academia, social care, voluntary sector and industry as well as the synergies we derive from working in the ‘connected network of networks’ formed by the 15 Academic Health Science Networks across the country.
Whilst in a meeting at a GP practice a doctor said something that really resonated with me, they said “we are all recruited by patients to serve the patients”.
The Innovation Technology Payment or ‘ITP’ programme which is delivered in partnership with the country’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), works to support NHS organisations to adopt a number of selected evidence-based innovative solutions. The scheme has been running since 2017 (although in a different guise previously), and a new selection of exciting innovations has just been announced – you can find out more about these here.
In May we held a social prescribing networking event for professionals in the health and care and voluntary sectors, who wanted to know more about social prescribing and hear from others who are delivering or thinking of delivering initiatives.
Every year after a lengthy period of consultation with various stakeholders, NHS England and NHS Improvement publish something known as ‘national tariffs’. NHS England defines the national tariff as ‘a set of prices and rules used by providers of NHS care and commissioners to deliver the most efficient, cost effective care to patients’.
A simple way to understand the tariff system is to look at them as a set of statutory pricing structures, essentially a pricing list, which commissioners (buyers of the health services) use to determine the cost of services they would like to buy (mostly acute care) for its populations. For providers (deliverers of services) the tariffs determine how much they will get paid.
Mental health is now recognised as a key priority within health and care, and with unavoidable statistics on the prevalence of mental health conditions it’s easy to understand why:
In my experience, Human Factors as a term sometimes prompts a vague look from people. If that is the case, I mention ergonomics instead because this may be more familiar to some.
The word ergonomics is derived from the Greek words, ergon (work) and nomis (law) and is often used in relation to the physical aspects of the environment, such as workstations, while ‘human factors’ is often used in relation to the wider system in which people work but both terms can be used interchangeably.
I was fortunate to have a long train journey this month to thoroughly read my recent Pharmaceutical Journal (Feb 2019 Vol 302 (7922)). The journal was a special with a focus on Medicines Safety. As a Non-Executive Director for the EMAHSN, two articles resonated with me. ‘GP pharmacists leading the way’ – with a spotlight on PINCER and ‘Train not Blame’, giving background to EPIFFANY. You can read the Journal article here.
Here in our region we are fortunate to have been early adopters of these two innovations.
Social prescribing is becoming an increasingly popular term but what does it mean, what are the benefits and just how are we going to make this widespread in the healthcare system?
The King’s Fund put it succinctly when they describe social prescribing as ‘enabling GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer people to a range of local, non-clinical services’.
So what’s new? Most people who have worked around the NHS for a number of years have a feeling that if you wait a while all things come back to where they used to be.
Remember Strategic Health Authorities? Part of the structure of the NHS in England between 2002 and 2013 responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. So are the new Integrated Care Systems (ICS) just a reinvention of these?
Following on from the recent EMAHSN Nottinghamshire Patient, Service User, Carer and Citizen Networking Event, Patient Leader Derek Stewart gives his personal perspective on the event, the value of networking and what’s next in Nottinghamshire. You can find out more about our Patient and Public Involvement and future events here.