NHS East of England - Welcome to our region

East of England, leading the way in stimulating quality and productivity through innovation

NHS East of England is the Strategic Health Authority for the east of England, covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.  

As the regional headquarters of the NHS, NHS East of England provides strategic leadership to all 40 local NHS organisations to ensure the £8.1 billion spent on healthcare in the region delivers the best services and value for money for our local population of 5.6 million people.

In line with its duty to promote innovation NHS East of England established a regional Innovation Council in October 2009 to stimulate and promote innovation across the NHS in the region.  The Council also has oversight of the Regional Innovation Funds, which in 2009/10 totalled £1.6 million.

In January 2010, NHS East of England welcomed a new Head of Innovation, Gareth Jones and he along with our partners are committed to ensuring we take what is best and cutting-edge and to make it available to all.

---

  

Towards the best, together - our clinical vision

Our vision in the east of England is to provide the best health service in England.  We will do this by delivering the 11 pledges of our strategy Improving Lives; Saving Lives and our regional clinical vision Towards the best, together.  

To find out more about Towards the best, together please click here

Our vision will give our population a better patient experience, improve people’s health and will reduce unfairness in health.  These improvements will be partly driven by innovation and we are very fortunate to be working in a region that already has an excellent track record in research and innovation – there have been 83 Nobel Prize winners in the last 100 years from the east of England.

---

  

NHS East of England – 11 pledges from Improving Lives; Saving Lives

 

1. We will deliver year on year improvements in patient experience
2. We will extend access guarantees to more of our services
3. We will ensure that GP practices improve access and become more responsive to the needs of all patients
4. We will ensure that NHS primary dental services are available locally to all those who need them
5. We will ensure fewer people suffer from, or die prematurely from, heart disease, stroke and cancer
6. We will make our health service the safest in England
7. We will improve the lives of those with long-term conditions
8. Working with our partners, we will reduce the difference in life expectancy between the poorest 20% of our communities and the average in each PCT
9. We will ensure healthcare is as available to marginalised groups and looked after children, as it is to the rest of us
10. We will cut the number of smokers by 140,000
11. We will halt the rise in obesity in children and then seek to reduce it

 

---

  

Examples of our innovation

 

CapPlan, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust

To improve planning and manage patient flow Bedford Hospital NHS Trust was the first in the UK to adopt CapPlan, a planning tool from New Zealand and Australia.

CapPlan is a capacity planning tool that uses forecasting and real time data to match staff and physical resources to workload. The Trust piloted the tool in October 2006 and decided to adopt it permanently following its success.
Despite already meeting their performance targets the Trust saw an opportunity to introduce the technology and improve its ability to accurately forecast activity, discharges and resources.

This was crucial to providing services both in short term and in longer term planning, to enable efficient use of resources and to reduce the length of inpatient stay. In addition, the tool has helped the Trust save around £600,000 a year.

Some of the core challenges for the project included staff buy-in and mistrust of the accuracy of data. To address these issues open sessions were held for all staff outlining the project’s aims and deliverables, with emphasis placed on the benefits to patients and their quality of care. The leading clinician and manager set up two sub-groups to work on improving data entry, thereby improving data quality.

Overall, CapPlan has improved patient care and reduced length of stay and has increased data quality and the reliability of information provided. The clinical staff have found the ability to take control of change empowering.
The Trust is now a national reference site for the UK and is using CapPlan to forecast capacity required over the next five years, proving its sustainability.

National and regional winners of the 2009 Health and Social Care Awards in the Adopt, Adapt and Improve category.

 

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation at Flu Vaccination - the most cost-effective procedure in the NHS, NHS North East Essex

Carried out annually at flu vaccinations, the Atrial Fibrillation Screening project was set up to assess major stroke risk factors in 65 year olds. GP practices were commissioned to take the pulse of every patient over the age of 65 and those found with an irregular pulse or atrial fibrillation were treated to minimise
the risk of stroke.

Atrial Fibrillation if untreated is a silent killer which carries an average 5% stroke risk per year. Stroke is a major health risk in the UK and particularly in North East Essex which has one of the most elderly populations in Europe. The annual cost of stroke to the UK economy is estimated to exceed £8.9 billion, with a direct cost of £4.9 billion to the NHS. Treatment includes Aspirin or Warfarin, which thin the blood slightly to reduce the risk of blood clotting.

This project was launched in October 2008 and is part of a range of community based services which have been set up to reduce vascular disease, including intensive risk factor management for patients living in deprived areas and twenty four hour community monitoring for paroxysmal arrhythmias and blood pressure.

This project has significantly improved the lives of patients found with atrial fibrillation. From October - December 2008, thirty thousand patients were screened for irregular pulse and 361 were found to have atrial fibrillation. Two patients had complete heart block and were treated immediately, saving two lives. Approximately nine strokes will be prevented in the next year
by preventative treatment with Warfarin or Aspirin.

Finalist in the Excellence in Commissioning category of the 2009 East of England Health and Social Care Awards

The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust Outpatient Management System for Pulmonary Embolism Patients

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust

The Acute Medical Unit team at Ipswich Hospital has successfully implemented an outpatient management system for pulmonary embolism patients. This has meant that only 5% of pulmonary embolism patients have to be admitted to the unit, cutting bed days and boosting patient satisfaction significantly.

Less than one in ten patients referred with a suspected pulmonary embolism at the hospital turn out to be positive on investigation, a situation reflected nationwide. Before the outpatient management system was implemented patients waited an average of 36 hours for a scan result, taking up valuable hospital beds with patients who are unlikely to be diagnosed with an embolism.

The Acute Medical Unit works closely with several departments in the hospital, including the Nuclear Medicine’s scanning department, to ensure that outpatient pulmonary embolism scans can be conducted five days a week.

The PCT’s rapid response nurses in the community agreed to take on conducting blood tests in patients’ homes, which made the outpatient management system possible. The Haemostasis and Thrombosis Committee backed proposals for the system from initial stages and it was successfully set up in early 2008.

Unless assessed as high risk during their preliminary medical examination the patient is sent home after their scan and visited by the rapid response nurses who visit daily, administer a course of medication and monitor the patient’s health. Care is taken by the clinicians to explain to the patient and their family that they will receive exactly the same treatment as they would if they were an inpatient, just not in the hospital setting.

Patient safety and satisfaction, along with decreased costs to the hospital has ensured that this project is sustainable. It is expected that this will become the national model for dealing with pulmonary embolism patients, as many other health providers are already aware of the potential benefits.

Winner of the Innovative Acute Care category in the 2009 East of England Health and Social Care Awards

 

Sliding Doors: An Aid to Infection Prevention

Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust

The Individual Bay Sliding Doors project was commissioned by the Infection Control Team and the Facilities Team at Hinchingbrooke Hospital to combat the rising levels of norovirus outbreaks, reducing the impact on patients, staff and operational procedures.

Following the rise in the frequency and duration of norovirus outbreaks it was decided that the introduction of individual bay sliding doors would provide a means to contain and prevent the spread of infection. This would form part of a wider refurbishment to the hospital.

The implementation of the sliding doors has made a significant difference in the hospital. The doors act as a barrier and provide the wards and the Infection Control Team with the facility to prevent outbreaks of infection which negates the closure of the whole ward. In the last 18 months the project has fitted seven wards with the sliding doors including the medical, surgical and maternity wards.

The project has seen vast improvements since its introduction and is an example of a simple solution that can help the Infection Control Team to deal with infections quickly and effectively. The most successful outcome has been the reduction in the impact of norovirus infection, resulting in only one incident of a ward being closed due to an outbreak since the scheme came in to effect. Additional benefits to patients include noise reduction, improved privacy and dignity.

Finalist in the Innovative Health and Social Care Technology category of the 2009 East of England Health and Social Care Awards

 

The Peezy

Funnelly Enough Limited, Norfolk

Peezy is a revolutionary, user-friendly, hygienic urine-collection device that dignifies sample delivery for patients. It was created by Dr Vincent Forte and his sister Giovanna Forte.

The device makes huge contributions to infection control and workplace hygiene, reducing potential for contamination and risk of MRSA and other infections in medical settings to patients and staff alike.

Contamination of samples by bacteria from the skin leads to inaccurate results in up to 30% of samples. Little clinical significance can be attached to these samples, which often need to be repeated with additional inconvenience to the patient, additional cost to the healthcare provider and a possible delay
in the commencement of treatment.

Peezy’s high-quality mid-stream sampling means significantly reduced sample contamination and therefore a reduced retest rate. The NHS Centre for Evidence Based Purchasing reports that using a mid-stream collection device yields an average saving of £2 per sample, over and above the cost of Peezy. A clinical trial is currently underway at Guys Hospital Urology Department to establish the user acceptability and hygiene benefits of Peezy, as well as the contamination and re-test rate reduction.

Peezy has already been bought by Great Yarmouth Practice-Based Commission Consortium. The Consortium will be examining feedback on the 3000 units it has purchased. To date informal feedback has revealed very high patient satisfaction. In March 2009, Peezy was awarded with the ‘Best Industrial Product’ and ‘Best of Show’ awards at the Design Week Awards.

Regional winners of the 2009 Health and Social Care Awards in the Innovative Health and Social Care Technology category
National runners up

 

Yellow Dominoes Infection Prevention

Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust

The Mid Essex ‘Yellow Dominoes’ Infection Prevention project has developed a number of initiatives to help reduce infection rates and improved patient safety throughout the Mid Essex health economy. This has crucially included engaging staff, patients and visitors in infection prevention.

One of the schemes introduced is the systematic cleaning of each bed and bed space between each patient, according to a standard operating procedure, followed by the application of a green ribbon around the bed, signifying to the new patient and their relatives that ‘their’ area is safe for their clinical care to commence. This visual assurance that a bed and surrounding area has been cleaned to a high standard, gives patients confidence in the hospital and also reinforces pride for cleaning staff at having done a good job.
Each directorate employs an infection prevention lead who splits their time between directorate infection prevention and clinical work in their directorate. This enables infection prevention to be led from ‘within’ and enables partnership working with the core infection prevention team.

The monthly Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) report, published widely throughout the trust, identifies the infection prevention key performance indicator score card. The information (monthly KPIs) is available to all and enables teams to look critically at their own team’s results, analyse problems and put systems in place to avoid recurrence.

A major part of the work of the Infection Prevention Team has been in educating staff. Through debate and discussion the team has demonstrated that time spent on preventing infection translates into improved patient outcome, such as reducing the length of stay needed in hospital.
Mid Essex is now amongst the best performing trusts in the country for cleanliness and infection prevention. Cases of MRSA have been reduced by 86% since 2004 and 50% since 2007.

Winner of the Patient Safety category in the 2009 East of England Health and Social Care Awards

 

Visual Communication Alerts Project

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust

Sarah Higson (Patient and Public Involvement) and Lisa Parrish (Head Matron) at Ipswich Hospital introduced a simple but highly effective visual alerts scheme, enabling staff to identify and help patients who may have trouble communicating.

Following consultations with user groups at the Hospital in spring 2007, Sarah and Lisa identified the need for a way to identify patients with communication difficulties, particularly those with sight and hearing impairments. The idea of some kind of signage to be placed at the bedside was developed to enable staff to quickly and easily be aware of disabilities or impairments and the subsequent needs.

The team held discussions with patients, visitor representatives and hospital departments in order to identify patients’ needs, and to develop appropriate symbols. As well as sight and hearing impairment, difficulties highlighted included ‘at risk of falling’, ‘dementia/memory problems’ and ‘interpreter needed’. Symbols were produced on small, subtle magnets which could be fixed next to the patient’s notes at the end of the bed and a leaflet and guidelines were developed to help patients, family and staff adopt the system.
Ward staff discussed with patients which symbols were most appropriate and only used them with the patients consent.

Patients and their visitors have been strong advocates of the new alerts system feeding back to staff that they give reassurance and prevent embarrassment they may feel having to raise problems with staff. The symbols have saved staff time in handovers and enabled them to tailor the care the patients receive to their own specific needs and deliver a service which is flexible and personal.

The scheme is so simple and effective that it was widely used and has received much interest from other acute hospitals across the country interested in starting up similar projects. New symbols can easily be introduced, allowing the system to grow and develop in the future.

Winner of the People’s Award for Dignity in Care in the 2009 East of England Health and Social Care Awards

 

Small Business Research Initiative

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) is a mechanism for bringing innovation solutions to government departments through engaging a broad range of companies that would not be reached through normal procurement.  NHS East of England, the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) together with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) are jointly funding a regional pilot Small Business Research Initiative competition.

The aim is to help bring forward new technologies to support the achievement of regional health priorities and increase the possibility of their adoption in the NHS.

With £3 million in funding, the Small Business Research Initiative offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to develop and demonstrate technology, supported by a customer, and to reach the first rung on the NHS procurement ladder. 

11 projects have been selected to receive the first stay funding and dependant on the success of the work to date, four of these will be selected to be funded to develop their products further.

 

Clinical Academic Career Awards

NHS East of England have recognised the importance of developing current and future researchers to support healthcare innovations, in nursing, midwifery, allied health care professionals and healthcare scientists.  15 awards have been designated for senior researchers and new entry researchers.  This unique investment provides a clinical academic career structure that will enable the development of tomorrow’s researchers.

 

Evidence Adoption Centre

The Evidence Adoption Centre is the east of England’s co-ordinating centre for the Adoption of Evidence-based Practice and Innovation.  It has been set up to help commissioners across the east of England make wise commissioning decisions regarding the adoption of new technologies, innovation and new ways of working.  It is located with the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership of Applied Health Research and Care in Cambridge. 

For more information, please click here

 

Medtech Service

Medtech Service is hosted by Health Enterprise East.  The service provides a single point of contact for Medtech healthcare companies to assist them in gaining access to NHS clinical, scientific and technical expertise with the aim of speeding up the development of new products and processes.  The Service helps facilitate initial product evaluations in a clinical setting, bench-testing and clinical studies within the NHS.  By helping companies in this way and assisting the NHS to communicate its need back to industry, resulting technologies will have a better chance of adoption by the NHS, have a better chance of bringing benefits to patients and reduce development costs.

For more information, please click here

---

  

Contact us

NHS East of England

Gareth Jones
Head of Innovation
gareth.jones@eoe.nhs.uk

Professor Mike Cook
Education, Research and Development Lead
mike.cook@eoe.nhs.uk

Vicki Lewis
Senior Communications Officer
vicki.lewis@eoe.nhs.uk

Health Enterprise East
Dr Anne Blackwood
Chief Executive
anne.blackwood@nhsinnovationseast.org.uk
 

---

  

Our partners    

 

Academic Health Science Centres

We were delighted in March 2009 that Cambridge University Health Partners was announced as one of the five Academic Health Sciences Centres.  These centres, chosen from amongst the leading university medical centres in the country, have been identified as the groups most likely to be able to compete with equivalent organisations in America, Europe and the rest of the world in areas of biomedical excellence.

Cambridge University Health Partners consists of:

-    Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
-    Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
-    Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The new partnership brings the member organisations closer together in pursuit of outstanding excellence in clinical care, clinical education and health research so as to improve services to patients and population health.

To read more, please click here

Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC)

Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hosts a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) in the provision of Mental Health Services.  It’s just one of nine CLAHRC set up around the country and the only one focused on mental health

To read more, please click here

Health Innovation Education Clusters (HIECs)

NHS East of England are leading the country by having three Health Innovation Education Clusters in the region. 

-    Norfolk and Waveney HIEC will focus on independent living for elderly people
-    Cambridge University Health Partnership HIEC will focus on Staying Healthy
-    Working in partnership with NHS London, the North East London and Essex HIEC will be looking at maternity care, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease and cardiac conditions.