Blogs

To mark Professional Care Workers Week (1-4 September 2020) and celebrate the excellent care workers we work within the East Midlands, our Patient Safety Collaborative Coordinator Nat talks about her background working in care and how this personally motivates her to want to support these individuals and the sector.

My background working in care

I began working as a care assistant after college. I had an accident which meant I couldn’t continue working as a chef and after helping to deliver a pastry class to adults with learning disabilities, I was inspired to apply for a job in care. I worked for a company that had several residential homes across Nottingham, specialising in supporting adults with learning disabilities and challenging behavior. I worked as a care assistant for six months before applying for a role as team leader and deputising for the home manager when needed. I worked in care for five years before joining the NHS.

Phil Jennings is the Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive at the Innovation Agency which covers the North West Coast and is one of the other 14 Academic Health Science Networks.

Phil provided an overview of his role as Medical Director and his views on the importance of that clinical role to strengthen sustainable adoption and spread of innovation within the health and care system.

East Midlands AHSN is currently seeking a Medical Director to join our Executive team and lead the delivery of our Patient Safety Collaborative and Medicines Optimisation programmes. For more information, please visit the join our team page on our website (closing date: 14 September 2020 ).

Embracing and recognising diversity is extremely important to the communities we live in and to our NHS – this applies to people who work in the NHS and communities the NHS serves. It’s also critical that patients are at the heart of all that we do and understanding people’s lived experience is key to getting it right.

We have seen a really challenging and disruptive few months. The coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on our NHS and we have seen a disproportionate effect on those from BAME communities – evidence shows those from these communities are three to four times more likely to die from COVID-19.  As well as a widespread pandemic we have seen Black Lives Matter protests –highlighting the racial inequalities that still exist in pockets of our society. These events have made me think about my culture, my roots and my heritage. The national Windrush Day is a great opportunity to celebrate and recognise those who have paved the way.

In a keynote address earlier this year, Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, spoke about better technology being a necessity, not a ‘nice to have’ saying “better technology is vital to have and embracing it is the only way to make the NHS sustainable over the long term”.

It can be argued that this point is even more pertinent now given the challenges faced by the health and care system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time we have seen digital technology and innovation deployed tactically and at an unprecedented pace within the NHS, to maximise efficiencies and improve outcomes.

We are currently seeking a Senior Improvement Lead to join our Patient Safety team (deadline for applications is 21 August 2020).

Here our previous Senior Improvement Lead Laura Hailes, who has left to take on a national patient safety role for NHS England and NHS Improvement, talks about her experiences working as part of the Patient Safety team.

To find out more about the role and how to apply, visit the NHS Jobs website.

Nutrition and hydration are extremely important, particularly for older people. Insufficient food and fluid intake can cause fragile skin, increased risk of infections and falls, kidney problems, along with other avoidable consequences.

Care home residents are particularly susceptible to malnutrition and dehydration based on their age, health conditions and their increased dependency.

The East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator is a support programme for a small number of Digital Health innovators who we believe have an exciting and worthwhile innovation that can make a real difference to our health and care system.

We selected three companies for our 2019-20 cohort who over the next year will receive support from EMAHSN experts to support the development of their businesses and innovations.

Here, Lucy Champ Business Development Director at WoundWorks, one of our Accelerator companies, talks about their adoption and spread journey and why they applied to the Digital Health Accelerator programme. 

The East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator is a support programme for a small number of Digital Health innovators who we believe have an exciting and worthwhile innovation that can make a real difference to our health and care system.

We selected three companies for our 2019-20 cohort who over the next year will receive support from EMAHSN experts to further the spread and adoption of their innovations.

Here Michael-Morgan Curran, Commercial and Clinical Development Officer gives an overview of MyCognition, their experience of navigating the NHS and how they feel the East Midlands Digital Health Accelerator will help with the adoption and spread of their innovation.

Innovators often wonder why the NHS fails to adopt their products when to them it seems to be a ‘no brainer’, but I always make a point to ask them “have you actually expressed a clear Value Proposition?”

Embracing innovation and entrepreneurship in the NHS is a key way to help the NHS achieve its ambitions as set out in the Long Term Plan – unlocking the potential for great ideas and new technologies to both improve patient outcomes and enable more efficient use of NHS resources.

Today (5 March 2020) the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) announced its 2020 programme introducing a new cohort of 11 high impact evidence based innovations.