The NHS is a truly unique and highly complex organisation. Responsible for over £150 billion of public sector spend, the sixth largest employer in the world is at the heart of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Throughout the current crisis, the NHS has excelled in providing essential care to the UK's 66 million residents. More than ever, it is vital that the dedication of its amazing doctors, nurses and support staff is recognised.
Since 2010, the Health Business Awards has been staged annually in order to recognise the many examples of innovation and excellence that happen every day in the NHS. Supported by Health Business magazine, the award categories incorporate facilities, technology, human resources, hospital management and transport as well as the Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare Award, which is presented to an NHS organisation that has achieved sustained success in its role and has brought benefits to the wider NHS through dedication and expertise.
The 2020 Health Business Awards will take place on 10 December, online, where the winners and commended entries will be revealed. Entry is free of charge to all NHS and supporting organisations.
Health Business can also announce that the 2020 Health Business Awards will be presented by GP, TV presenter, medical broadcaster, author and public speaker Dr Hilary Jones.
This year there are 18 categories being awarded, with the shortlisted organisations revealed below:
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
At the start of the year, the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust signed a 10-year partnership with Babylon to create the world's first integrated digital health system, offering virtual hospital appointments and diagnosis via AI.
The new healthcare delivery model of ‘Digital-First Integrated Care’, helping for 300,000 people across Wolverhampton and its surrounding areas, will mean that patient will gain greater control over their own health, faster treatment, fewer trips to hospital, treatment from their own home and greater access to their own data. Furthermore, staff will have time freed-up for patients with the most urgent and complex issues, avoid duplication, and improve information-sharing.
This year, the trust also launched a new clinical IT project with the goal of reducing administrative duties so that the critical care outreach team could be freed up to spend more time directly caring for patients, while data can be collected in a centralised way that’s both quick and paperless.
NHS Digital
This year, NHS Digital has completed the largest known public sector data network transition programme, saving the NHS an estimated £75 million a year and providing organisations with faster connectivity at reduced cost.
Approximately 12,000 sites belonging to 950 NHS, social care, private sector and local authority organisations have moved from the legacy N3 network to the new Health and Social Care Network (HSCN), giving them great value, highly reliable connectivity with improved security capabilities.
The value for money generated by the new HSCN marketplace has enabled many organisations to significantly upgrade their connectivity in order to adopt more digital and cloud-based services, cope with rising levels of online activity, support their coronavirus response and ultimately realise their digital ambitions.
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The NHS has an ongoing challenge with reminding patients about appointments and managing DNA rates. Reminder text messages support posted letters, but that’s not enough. Situations change rapidly and relying on the postal services is no longer sufficient. Chesterfield Royal Hospitals want to improve their patient’s experience along with utilisation rates for appointments and launched a digital portal; Patient Hub. It can be used on any device and has two-factor security offering patients 24/7 access to their appointment information.
Patient Hub went live as the coronavirus lockdown began. The trust used a phase roll-out for the best results and Chesterfield quickly transitioned to 80 per cent non-face-to-face appointments. It was easy for patients to make a mistake when typing in a long video link from a letter. Now they click on a button and they are in Attend Anywhere’s video portal.
Booking team advisors help patients to go digital with phone support. There are banners, posters and website section. Chesterfield is also using radio, press, Facebook and Social Media. Chesterfield Royal Hospitals believes that the initial quarter’s success of 66% of new appointments managed digitally is just the start.
Cardiff & Vale University Health Board
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board uses OpenEyes, an Ophthalmology fully digital web based Electronic Patient Record (EPR) to support its digital Glaucoma pathway. The day after lockdown cancelled all non-emergency outpatient appointments, the Health Board implemented the Unscheduled Care Module of Open Eyes and with Blackberry technology were able to ‘safely and securely’ connect four primary care Independent Prescribing (IP) Optometry practices to Open Eyes with honorary contracts on 24 March 2020. The organisation also implemented the Unscheduled Care Module of Open Eyes in University Hospital of Wales.
The 13 non IP optometrist practices that remained open during lockdown referred patients to this service on a daily basis. Optometrists were able to manage complex acute eye conditions, upload the eye images to Open Eyes using their practice and secure messaging Windows 10 and iPad remotely configured with Blackberry technology into the secure NHS network to be viewed in Hospital Eye Casualty Clinic.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals
Over the course of the past year, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals’ (DBTH) Digital Transformation directorate has been spearheading a number of exciting schemes that have benefited patients and supported colleagues when they needed it most. Throughout 2020, the team have been introducing an electronic observations (eObs) platform, through which patient records can be updated and viewed remotely. In turn, this replaces the need for filling out lengthy and repetitious paper forms, enabling colleagues to focus more on delivering high-quality care.
Bolstering the trust’s efficiencies in this way has been of the utmost importance during the pandemic, with eObs producing several key improvements. For example, the mobile app (which can be accessed securely via a handheld device): sends instant alerts to doctors and allows for timelier escalations; facilitates safer handovers with no details missed; accelerates the audit process; and makes charts easier to view. In addition to all this, it also leads to more accurate fluid balance measurements and lets services pull real time data from one convenient source.
It is estimated that, through the eObs platform, DBTH manages to save an average of 83 seconds per set of obs, a figure that totalled around 8,636 minutes between the months of October 2019 and January 2020. Since then, it has had an even more profound impact, as it has been instrumental in helping our clinicians keep on top of coronavirus pressures.
London Ambulance Service
Just prior to the coronavirus pandemic striking the UK, it was announced that five cars staffed by mental health nurses from NHS trusts around the capital and paramedics from London Ambulance Service were to begin treating the physical and mental health needs of patients together.
The pioneering scheme, following an expansion of a mental health car service launched in South East London in November 2018, places an emphasis on linking mental health patients with the most appropriate treatment, including referrals to specialist care, and only taking them to A&E where this is necessary, ie because of an accompanying physical condition.
The service is estimated to have helped around 2,000 people suffering with mental health issues in the past year, with estimates that the scheme could halve the 60,000 annual mental health hospital admissions each year. The South East London pilot also saw the proportion of patients taken to A&E more than halved from around 52 per cent to 18 per cent as more patients were treated effectively in their own homes or received other appropriate care.
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
In May, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust went live with a new electronic prescribing system, to better help administer medicines for NHS mental health professionals. The move means that trust staff at more than 70 sites throughout Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire can now securely access a patient’s medication information electronically and issue prescriptions from anywhere. The trust has become the first of its kind in the country to go live with the DXC Technology ePMA component of the Lorenzo electronic patient record system.
The system has been implemented to meet the specific needs of mental health services at the multi-speciality health and social care provider. The accessibility to ePMA has already resulted in patient safety benefits, and a significant amount of time is being saved by busy hospital staff in both prescribing and administering medications.
ICU Steps/Scottish Government
Up to one-third of patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus have been found to have developed serious mental health consequences, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive problems.
Backed with an investment of £200,000, the Scottish Government announced in October that people who have been hospitalised with coronavirus in Scotland will have access to a new national peer support network to help their recovery and rehabilitation. As part of the funding, the charity ICU Steps will connect ICU survivors and their families across Scotland to facilitate patient-led support groups, as well as offering a range of well-being resources to help with recovery.
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust runs the CONNECT: West Yorkshire Adult Eating Disorders Service, which provides early intervention, outpatient, inpatient and intensive home-based treatment for people aged 18 and over with eating disorders from across West Yorkshire.
In order to meet national guidelines and restrictions the service had to make some significant changes to how care and support was delivered. This included innovations in the use of social media channels and other methods to keep in touch with service users. The service offered #ConnectConversations three times daily via Instagram to provide additional support and resources for those suffering with eating disorders. They also converted all of their usual therapy to ‘teletherapy’ within a week of lockdown commencing and moved their open access support group ‘The Hub’ online and promoted this via Instagram.
South London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
A specialist Mental Health Emergency service delivered by South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) in response to the coronavirus pandemic has been commissioned to the end of October.
The Orchid Mental Health Emergency Service, which was recently praised by the CQC as an ‘innovative and inspirational’ service, and the enhanced 24/7 mental health support line were both funded for a further three months in July, to allow time for the benefits to be fully considered and a decision to be made on a longer term basis.
Since opening on 30 March, more than 530 people who would otherwise have had no alternative but to attend Accident and Emergency have been assessed and successfully treated at Orchid.
The Orchid Mental Health Emergency Service was set up to create a mental health alternative to acute hospital emergency departments, ensuring anyone in crisis, who does not have serious physical health needs, will be able to receive specialist care from expert mental health professionals day or night, taking much needed pressure off local acute trusts who are dealing with the full brunt of the pandemic.
London Ambulance Service / London Fire Brigade
London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade announced a new partnership to boost the coronavirus emergency response in April, which saw firefighters helping with a number of roles across the ambulance service. According to the service, up to 300 staff from London Fire Brigade would help by driving ambulances and assisting paramedics as directed, thus ramping up capacity to provide a massive increase in our ability to respond quickly to Londoners in need as demand further escalated across the capital.
The announcement followed a national agreement between the National Employers, National Fire Chiefs Council and the Fire Brigades Union to support local authorities and the NHS, including ambulance services.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust / Yorkshire Ambulance Service
This year, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Yorkshire Ambulance Service began extending the sharing of data, allowing the electronic transfer of ambulance care records directly into the hospital system. Automatically transferring ambulance service documentation into the trust’s electronic patient health record will save time and resource when receiving a patient into acute care. It also ensures clinical and care teams are provided with up to date information at the right time, benefitting patient care.
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Yorkshire Ambulance Service team has worked closely with colleagues from Yorkshire & Humber Care Record on this development, supported by Local Health and Care Record Exemplar funding designed to encourage digital innovation across the Yorkshire region.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
On 1 April, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust completed their merger to create Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, becoming the first trust on the English mainland to provide combined community, mental health and acute hospital services.
Somerset FT provides community services, including services in people’s own homes, community sites and from community hospitals in the county, mental health and learning disability services, and services at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.
The two legacy trusts first formed an alliance in May 2017 and have worked closely together since then. In late 2017, the two trusts established a joint executive team, with Peter Lewis as joint chief executive, which oversaw all aspects of both trusts’ operations and worked to a single set of strategic objectives covering hospital, community and mental health services.
NHS Kernow CCG
Cornwall has a ‘super-ageing’ population and as people live longer there will be an increased demand on health and social care services. NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group and Cornwall Council announced an agreement in February for a new approach to working together on social care, health commissioning and public health services.
The new joint ‘Accountable Officer’ role will incorporate the duties currently undertaken by Cornwall Council’s Strategic Director of Adult Care and Health and those of NHS Kernow’s Chief Officer to provide joined-up leadership to deliver on the new vision for Health and Well-Being for the next decade.
The creation of a joint role built on the already-close working between the two organisations and has the potential to deliver far-reaching benefits to local people by providing joint oversight, leadership, and focus to allow public health and social care services to develop and deliver services to meet the needs and promote the wider health and well-being of people and communities.
London Ambulance Service / AA
This year, to help keep paramedics on the road to respond to increasing health callouts, the AA partnered with London Ambulance Service to provide additional support to help keep clinicians on the road during the coronavirus epidemic.
The partnership includes 24-hour breakdown and incident management services such as roadside assistance and vehicle recovery for London Ambulance Service vehicles.
At the time of the announcement, the AA said that its teams would provide immediate technical support for the service’s fleet of more than 500 ambulances and 70 fast response cars. Forty-one AA patrols have been sent to the twelve London Ambulance Service workshops across the capital to work alongside the service’s fleet workshop teams providing additional mechanical support and breakdown recovery and keeping vehicles ready to respond.
Solent Transport
Solent Transport is advancing part of its four-year drone project, which will look to develop an air traffic management system to oversee the safe movement of both manned and unmanned aircraft in shared airspace. This year, following the coronavirus outbreak, the organisation undertook a new trial looking into using drones to transport medical supplies across the Solent to the Isle of Wight to support the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Various types of unmanned aircraft are being trialled to see how these could improve the movement of medical supplies between the three hospitals in Hampshire – Southampton General Hospital, Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. The project intends to increase efficiency, reduce costs and transportation time of medical supplies between NHS locations.
Thames Valley Air Ambulance
Thames Valley Air Ambulance, which primarily serves the communities of the Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, was rated as Outstanding following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission this year. The independent ambulance service was rated as Outstanding for being safe, caring and well-led and Good for being effective and responsive to people’s needs.
Among her comments, CQC inspector Catherine Campbell said that ’there was a strong culture of openness, honesty and learning’ and that ’the service and staff took a proactive approach to safeguarding’. Thames Valley carry both packed red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma on all its vehicles, enabling clinicians to give transfusions in an emergency setting.
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
In June, the transport arm of Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, QE Transport (QET), was awarded with Van Excellence Operator Certification by the FTA, making them the first van fleet operator to receive certification remotely under coronavirus physical distancing rules.
Van Excellence is an industry-led scheme promoting the safe, sustainable and efficient operation of vans. The scheme recognised QET’S commitment to keeping its drivers, passengers, sensitive cargo, and other road users safe through the adoption of best practice and a dedication to compliance.
The company’s 30-strong van fleet transports medical and confidential resources for the Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, including time sensitive blood products
NHS Scotland
At the end of last year, NHS Scotland accessed £1.36 million of available support through the Transport Scotland Switched on Fleets Fund for 112 new electric cars. The funding will increase the number of Ultra-Low Emission vehicles in the NHS shared service fleet by almost 80 per cent, replacing existing fossil fuelled vehicles across a number of NHS shared service functions and regions, reducing the CO2 equivalent tailpipe emissions by at least 168 tonnes every year by comparison.
The 2019 Programme for Government outlined the Scottish Government’s commitment to phase out the need for new petrol or diesel cars in the public sector fleet by 2025 and for all other vehicles in the public sector fleet by 2030.
Welsh Ambulance Service
In October, the Welsh Ambulance Service unveiled ultra-modern additions to its 799-strong fleet, including a low-emission hybrid rapid response car, the first of its kind for the service.
The trust has also commissioned new and improved emergency and non-emergency ambulances, as well as a fleet maintenance vehicle to help with the upkeep of its new haul. It is hoped the more fuel efficient vehicles will drive down CO2 emissions and improve the experience of both staff and patients.
Forty six of the new Toyota Rav4 Hybrid rapid response cars are now on the road across Wales, replacing some of the Trust’s older diesel-powered vehicles. The mile-per-gallon of the new rapid response car will increase from around 22mpg to 31mpg, which equates to a reduction of around 125 tonnes of CO2 emitted per year.
London Ambulance Service
The Mayor of London unveiled a new hi-tech training centre in August, which will help enable London Ambulance Service to train more emergency call handlers. The new training centre in Barking will help London Ambulance Service build greater capacity to take potentially life-saving calls as well as enhancing the NHS 111 service for east London.
By the end of this year, 155 emergency call handlers will have trained at the new interactive 999 training centre and be ready to take emergency calls from the public. An additional 150 ambulances have also been added to the capital’s streets to help the service deal with the expected rise in demand in the months ahead.
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
People aged 65 and older have the highest risk of falling; around a third of people aged 65 and over, and around half of people aged 80 and over, fall at least once a year. Unaddressed fall hazards in the home are estimated to cost NHS England a staggering £435 million.
The East Lancashire Falls Response Service Team, part of NWAS, sees the collaboration of a Paramedic and an Occupational Therapist who respond to non-life threatening 999 calls for falls, so that patients can be treated at home without having to go to hospital or can be referred to an appropriate community service.
The partnership between NWAS and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has seen 83 per cent of the patients treated by the FRS, some 4,946 incidents, remain at home, many were referred onwards to community teams and specialist nursing teams.
For the first six months of 2020, the team attended 487 patients and 84 per cent of those patients remained at home and avoiding the need to attend the Emergency Department, which was particularly important during the peak of first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
East Midlands Ambulance Service
Following two years of work, August saw the completion of the new tri-service station Hucknall, bringing East Midlands Ambulance Service, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue and Leicestershire Police 99 services under one roof.
Richard Henderson, chief executive for EAMS, said at the opening of the facility that ‘physically sharing a space together it will undoubtedly build on our relationships and understanding of one another’s organisations and work we do to support our communities’.
Facilities at the station include a kitchen area where staff can eat and chat with their work mates on breaks, showers, a locker room, lounge area and quiet room.
South Central Ambulance Service
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust launched a ground-breaking digital product this year to enable the public to stream video directly from their smartphones into the SCAS 999 Clinical Coordination Centres. The GoodSAM’sInstant On Scene product is set to revolutionise triage for the Ambulance Service, ensuring medics can now see what the patient sees in just a few seconds. It will enable SCAS’s 999 CCC staff to send a text or email message to a caller containing a link which, when clicked on, enables video to be streamed live from the caller’s smartphone directly into the CCC.
All data is securely transmitted with end-to-end encryption and no video is recorded, so members of the public can be absolutely confident that their information is safe.
The 999 call continues while the video is streaming. Instant on Scene will help ensure patients are quickly assessed and given effective medical advice. It will support SCAS in better understanding the level of care or resources which may be required to deliver the best patient outcomes.
GoodSAM’s Instant On Scene is being rolled out as part of SCAS’s Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) programme. This initiative is supported by NHS Digital and is designed to leverage technology to improve patient outcomes and staff working practices.
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
This summer, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust was awarded £5 million to drive digital transformation projects to further improve the safety and quality of the care which staff are able to provide to patients. The only ambulance service to be named as a pilot site for the new digital aspirant programme, run by NHSX, EEAST’s funding will be awarded over the next two years and will be used to help the trust move towards its goal of becoming paperless by 2023/24 by modernising technology and speeding up a range of digital projects already taking place.
EEAST has pledged that it will provide 3,500 frontline staff with iPads so they can complete mandatory training and access clinical information and any other resources they may need while they are out on the road, and that the dated electronic patient care record system will be replaced with a modern, flexible and fully integrated system which will allow staff to share information easily and securely with healthcare partners.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust/Yorkshire Ambulance Service
This year, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Yorkshire Ambulance Service began extending the sharing of data, allowing the electronic transfer of ambulance care records directly into the hospital system. Automatically transferring ambulance service documentation into the trust’s electronic patient health record will save time and resource when receiving a patient into acute care. It also ensures clinical and care teams are provided with up to date information at the right time, benefitting patient care.
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Yorkshire Ambulance Service team has worked closely with colleagues from Yorkshire & Humber Care Record on this development, supported by Local Health and Care Record Exemplar funding designed to encourage digital innovation across the Yorkshire region.
NHS Arden & GEM CSU
As a temporary measure to finding a definitive source for the daily reporting of deaths brought about at the start of the pandemic, providers were using a manual data return spreadsheet to record deaths over email. The NHS Chief Executive’s Office wanted to replace this with a timely and accurate system as quickly as possible and approached Arden & GEM’s Data and Systems team, with its successful track record of building, deploying and hosting similar applications.
By bringing together development, user support, data management and reporting expertise from within its business intelligence service, the CSU was able to quickly define system needs and begin development, establishing the system requirements at pace by setting up a series of rapid discovery sessions with key stakeholders. The sessions identified the key system functionality and outputs required.
The application was built using a web form which can be accessed on any internet connected device, with the majority of fields auto-filled once the appropriate NHS number has been entered, reducing data entry errors and improving data quality. The system is hosted within Arden & GEM’s robust application and data warehouse environment while the user registration process is managed through NHS Improvement using OKTA authentication. All entries are validated at both a regional and national level to corroborate notifications. It has now been rolled out to over 1,600 users from 675 organisations, and has been endorsed by the UK Statistics Authority as proving ‘critical for decision-makers and scientists’.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
The current pandemic and the national response has had an inevitable impact on NHS trusts and the people they serve across the country. CRIS-COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative is a project led by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust’s Clinical Record Interactive Search, creating a data resource which provides both clinicians and researchers short- and long-term monitoring of clinical outcomes and changes to service use during the pandemic.
The aim of the project is to collect relevant, real-time data which can be used to improve the healthcare received by service users of both Slam and fellow mental health trusts. The project has shared six pre-print publications available online which share important data on topics including groups at risk, causes of death and service use.
The trust is also working with the four acute trusts within its catchment to gather A&E attendance and hospital admission data for our patients. This means that the organisation can profile wider service use on a monthly basis, as well as understand levels of intensive care use. SLaM is also tracking mortality rates as it links data to the NHS spine, as well as pooling data from all practices in Lambeth via Lambeth DataNet to further quantify service activity.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Like many other NHS trusts, Cambridge University Hospitals previously relied on paper patient records and multiple aged IT systems with limited integration and capability. With a clinical desire for data-driven care and improvements to safety using advanced digital technology, all clinical areas across both of the trust’s hospitals have been completely transformed with the introduction of eHospital.
The first-of-its-kind transformation in an NHS Trust, eHospital has revolutionised the way that clinical teams at the trust now care for their patients. Having access to comprehensive electronic health records, at the touch of a button, enables our staff to view and record all clinical information in one place, in real-time, wherever and whenever they need it.
eHospital, first introduced in 2014, is the digital transformation that is enabling staff at Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals use the latest technology to deliver consistently high quality care to patients in the Cambridgeshire region.
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
Westmorland General Hospital, part of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, has been honoured as a National Joint Registry (NJR) ‘Quality Data Provider’ after successfully completing a national programme of orthopaedic data audits. The NJR monitors the performance of hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to improve clinical outcomes for the benefit of patients, clinicians and industry. The registry collects high quality orthopaedic data in order to provide evidence to support patient safety, standards in quality of care and overall cost effectiveness in joint replacement surgery.
In order to achieve the award, hospitals are required to meet a series of six ambitious targets during the audit period 2019/2020. One of the targets which hospitals are required to complete is compliance with the NJR’s mandatory national audit aimed at assessing data completeness and quality within the registry.
The Medical Records department at UHMBT played a key role in achieving the award as the team members proactively pulled all of the patients records for cross checking against of NJR Audit data.
Royal Voluntary Service
By the end of March this year, 405,724 people had signed up to volunteer for the NHS to help in its fight against coronavirus, highlighting the ‘overwhelming response’ to a call made by NHS England just 24 hours before.
NHS Volunteer Responders, run by the Riyal Voluntary Service, offers help to people in need of support or who are avoiding public places during the coronavirus pandemic. Its aims are to supplement existing voluntary support within communities, help people to stay well, and reduce avoidable demand on NHS services. More than a million tasks - including shopping and medication deliveries, lifts to medical appointments or telephone chats to combat loneliness – have already been completed by the 360,000 NHS Volunteer Responders who have put themselves on duty.
In November, it was revealed that the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme would be extended to support the public and NHS staff over winter. The programme will also be expanded to offer volunteers new ways in which they can support their communities and NHS staff, including helping to run large flu vaccination clinics as part of the NHS’ largest ever winter protection drive.
NHS England: For a Greener NHS
The health and care system in England is responsible for an estimated five per cent of the country’s carbon footprint, so the programme will aim to tackle both the causes of air pollution and climate change.
Following the launch of the Climate Assembly UK, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens announced that the NHS and its staff will step up action to tackle the climate ‘health emergency’ this year. The ‘For a Greener NHS’ campaign contains three main steps: establishing an expert panel to chart a practical route map this year to enable the NHS to get to ‘net zero’; a proposed new NHS Standard Contract calling on hospitals to reduce carbon from buildings and estates; and the grassroots campaign ‘For a Greener NHS’ to encourage staff and hospitals to cut their impact on people’s health and the environment.
The campaign will build on the work already underway to help trusts and staff to cut emissions, energy use and waste, including phasing out oil and coal boilers and increased use of LED lighting and electric vehicles.
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
In July, a first-of-its-kind campaign was launched to wipe out the transmission of coronavirus in Southampton’s hospitals. University Hospital Southampton began planning to bring back services and healthcare support by leading from the frontline in ensuring that patients who need treatment can access it safely.
The University Hospital Southampton COVID ZERO campaign is the first of its kind to be launched by a hospital trust in England. It contains one clear message both for the Southampton community as well as the trust’s 11,500 staff; Walk, Wear, Wash.
The aim of campaign, which is still running, is to enable the trust to return services as quickly as possible while keeping staff and patients safe from the threat of coronavirus by ensuring there is no transmission of the disease. Effective onward infection prevention will mean staff who have been redeployed during the pandemic will be able to return to their regular roles, helping services to resume at full strength.
Public Health England: Every Mind Matters
April saw Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters platform launched with new advice focused on looking after people’s mental wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic. Data shows that more than four in five Brits are worried about the effect that coronavirus is having on their life, with over half saying it was affecting their well-being and nearly half reporting high levels of anxiety.
The range of new Every Mind Matters resources include a tailored Covid-19 Mind Plan, Covid-19 specific content for individuals and their loved ones, and support for specific mental well-being issues such as anxiety, stress, low mood and trouble sleeping. The website signposts people to activities such as mindful breathing exercises, help reframing unhelpful thoughts and muscle relaxation.
To help spread the message, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge narrated a short film which was broadcast across national TV channels on 20 April.
JustPark
An increase in demand for parking spaces near hospitals and health centres due to coronavirus led to UK parking app, JustPark, to launch a nationwide public appeal to help ease the burden on travelling NHS staff and patients.
JustPark, which matches drivers with parking spaces, said that it would waive all fees to help connect key workers and patients with available spaces. The concept for the decision would be for nearby homeowners and businesses to provide free access to parking spaces for healthcare professionals and patients.
Anthony Eskinazi, founder and CEO of JustPark, said: “Healthcare staff are working round the clock to care for the public, but there are an increasing number of parking issues facing NHS workers, which is adding to the pressure they are facing at this time. Many people have unused parking spaces in key locations, so we’re appealing for them to support the efforts of our NHS by making them available as free hospital parking to those in need. While it might only be a small step, it is important to ensure the fight against the virus can continue.”
The app has a network of over 50,000 locations and over 4.5 million registered users.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the first healthcare trust in the UK to achieve the highest international quality standard that recognises the use of technology, data and analytics to support inpatient care.
The Trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals, has reached ‘Stage 7’ – the highest rating of the HIMSS Analytics international Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). A rigorous assessment was hosted virtually in October, with HMSS inspectors observing clinical staff using the trust’s Epic electronic patient record system, electronic data and analytics, to demonstrate how digital use is embedded within clinical practice for patient care.
Areas inspected included wards, the emergency department, critical care and anaesthetics, paediatrics, pharmacy, transfusion, radiology, cardiology, laboratories, clinical coding and medical records. Other areas of patient safety were demonstrated to inspectors including medication administration, specimen collection, administration of communally stored human milk, and blood transfusion.
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has developed a new electronic system tor and monitor patients with suspected or confirmed coronavirus, ensuring that they receive the highest standards of treatment whilst protecting other patients in hospital from the virus.
Created by Chest Clinic Consultant Dr Roshan Siva, the ‘Rosh Board’ allows clinicians to instantly see information on every patient staying in a bed in Croydon University Hospital, instantly displaying their conditions, locations and a wealth of other information.
In July, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust opened a ‘hospital within a hospital’ to separate its coronavirus and non-coronavirus care to protect patients from the virus. Asa result of this, the trust is now back to 120 per cent of pre-lockdown levels for routine procedures such as cancer, cardiac, and hip operations, protecting the recovery of planned care services whilst ensuring enough capacity to for emergency care and an increase in cases from a second surge of coronavirus.
Southern Health and Social Care Trust
Since it was set up two years ago, an estimated 6,000 days which people may have otherwise spent in Southern Trust hospitals have been avoided thanks to the Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Service.
Funded through the Department of Health’s Transformation Fund, the team of microbiologists, pharmacists and nurses, using pharmacists in an enhanced clinical role, is having a significant impact on patient care.
The OPAT service looks after patients being discharged with ongoing antibiotics. Together they work with district nursing, helping to prevent hospital admissions, supporting earlier discharge and enhancing overall experience for suitable patients.
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection, when a person's immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body's tissues and organs. Acute kidney injury is when a person's kidneys suddenly stop working properly, usually as complication of an acute illness, and this can range from minor loss of kidney function to complete kidney failure.
Sepsis and Kidney Injury are common causes of in-hospital patient deterioration. The Sepsis and Kidney Injury Prevention (SKIP) team at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust work to identify deterioration as early as possible, allowing clinicians to make quick decisions about life-saving treatment. Patients have a much better outcome when treatment is received promptly after they show signs of sepsis.
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
In May this year, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust announced that it had developed CareScan+, a point of care scanning solution used to enhance patient safety. CareScan+ uses the information contained within barcodes to identify patients and staff. It is also used to track and monitor the use of medical equipment, surgical implants and other medical supplies.
CareScan+ was trialled in late 2019 and was used by clinical staff to scan items, such as replacement hip and knee joints prior to being used in the operating theatre. After a successful trial, the Project team were tasked with adapting CareScan+ for monitoring the location and usage of non-invasive ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic.
Each portable ventilator device is given a unique barcode, which is scanned every time it is allocated to a patient, removed for cleaning or maintenance or put back in storage. Whenever a member of staff requires one of the ventilators, they just check a simple online dashboard which shows the location and current usage of every ventilator in the hospital.
CareScan+ is solely owned by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, who are one of the six Scan4Safety demonstrator sites.
Broadmoor Hospital
The new £250 million high-security Broadmoor Hospital opened at the end of 2019, replacing the old hospital. The new hospital has been purpose built to provide a safe environment for treating patients who need psychiatric care in a high-secure setting.
The new Broadmoor Hospital is able to provide treatment for up to 210 men with mental illness and personality disorders who represent a high degree of risk to themselves and others. It features spacious ward areas, with plenty of natural light and access to ward gardens and has a modern layout which allows staff to observe patients effectively and maintain a safe environment.
It also has a multi-disciplinary team located on every ward and a central building housing a wide range of therapeutic, vocational, educational and healthy living activities and a multi-faith room.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Over the last three years, the number of violent attacks in health and social care was three times as high as other industries. Figures by Unison reveal that across the UK there were more than 56,000 physical assaults on NHS workers.
Experts from the NHS, Metropolitan Police Service, and Crown Prosecution Service are working together to improve the prosecution rates of criminal investigations following assaults on NHS workers. The pilot scheme, called Operation Cavell, will help to protect health workers on the frontline, ensuring that senior investigators review all crimes against NHS workers and will use the experience of specialised and dedicated police investigators.
From October, the scheme will run for an introductory period of four months for investigations of assaults on emergency workers across five boroughs, Lambeth, Southwark, Bromley, Croydon and Sutton.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust become the first UK healthcare organisation to deploy innovative new thermographic technology to protect front-line NHS workers and patients from a second wave of coronavirus cases, leading the way on the UK’s road to recovery.
UHNM, which runs Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford, installed the first of eight thermal cameras funded by the Denise Coates Foundation in June, as part of its £10 million commitment to UHNM Charity in response to the pandemic. The cameras record body temperature and identify anyone displaying signs of fever, with real-time alerts to enable interception and help prevent the spread of coronavirus and other contagious diseases.
Patients attending the Royal Stoke for diagnostic scans were the first to benefit from the introduction of the thermal scanners with cameras in use in the hospital’s radiology outpatient department, preventing potential positive staff and patients from spreading the virus on site. An additional six cameras are to be deployed strategically around the hospitals in key areas designed to prevent potential coronavirus carriers from entering and transmitting the virus to other patients and staff.
NHS Digital/NHS Shared Business Services
NHS Digital and NHS Shared Business Services have worked with the national Cyber Security Centre to develop a new cyber security services framework for the NHS and public sector, which can be used to procure external support and services to help manage cyber security risks.
The Cyber Security Services Framework, which runs until May 2022, with an option to extend for a further two years, provides value-for-money access to 25 carefully selected suppliers specialising in managing cyber risks, recovering from attacks, cyber consultancy and security personnel. It has an estimated value of £250 million.
The launch of this new framework was particularly timely as the coronavirus pandemic prompted a new wave of cyber attacks and scams.
Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals
This year, bodycams have been given to hospital staff at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals to make them feel safer around potentially violent and aggressive patients. Security staff, casualty nurses and medical teams began trialling the cameras in February in a bid to deter confrontations and boost confidence amongst the workers.
The cameras attached to their clothing are not running the whole time but can be triggered by a button if the staff member feels the need. The patient or visitor has to be informed when the camera is going to be turned on. A mirror image of what is being recorded can be seen by the other person as it is happening. It is hoped this would calm the situation and prevent confrontational or aggressive encounters.
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
In 2019, the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust declared a climate emergency, becoming the first NHS trust in the UK to do so. By making the public declaration, the trust demonstrated a clear and positive commitment to take action on climate change by aiming to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Since that declaration, which prompted a number of other NHS organisations follow suit, the trust, which serves a population of over three million, has formed a number of city-wide action groups and established a climate action group across the region’s integrated care system, led by the trust’s chief executive, Dame Jackie Daniel.
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has five main sites, as well as many community sites. There has been an 11 per cent reduction in direct carbon emissions over the course of a year and a 40 per cent reduction in the environmental impact of volatile anaesthetic gases.
NHS Supply Chain
NHS Supply Chain’s route to market delivers not only cash releasing savings but wider sustainability benefits for NHS customers. As an organisation linked to the NHS and to public health, NHS Supply Chain is committed to ensure the most environmentally and cost-efficient services across the supply chain.
In 2019 more than 200 NHS trusts had made huge environmental savings by simply switching their copier paper. The move from A4 virgin fibre copier paper to A4 recycled paper saved the equivalent of: watching 85,503 hours of a plasma TV in energy; filling 161 Olympic size swimming pools with water; felling 20,000 trees in wood; and travelling 10 times around the world in an aeroplane in CO2.
The switch to recycled copier paper not only delivered environmental savings, it has also driven financial savings to the NHS. By channelling national commitment, reducing variety from two lines of paper (70gsm and 80gsm) to one (80gsm) and changing from virgin to recycled paper, £256,000 has been saved in the first year with a cost avoidance to the NHS of £1,410,000.
As an organisation we continue to drive activities in: reducing waste, saving money and minimising environmental impacts; improving delivery efficiencies and ensuring continuity of supply; procuring and operating responsibly and ethically; and building supply chain resilience.
NHS Property Services
NHS Property Services is responsible for more than 3,500 buildings of NHS estate, collectively totalling more than 34 million square feet.
Earlier this year, NHS Property Services signed a contract to source 100 per cent of its electricity demand from renewable sources. This means that, under new energy deals signed by the health service’s Property Services arm, with Inspired Energy, more than 11 per cent of the NHS's estate switched to 100 per cent renewable electricity this Spring.
The organisation claims the switch will reduce its annual direct (Scope 1) and power-related (Scope 2) carbon emissions by more than 40,000 tonnes. The use of renewable electricity won’t increase costs to either tenants or NHS Property Services itself.
In addition to switching to 100 per cent renewable electricity, NHS Property Services also committed £1.5 million in 2019-20 towards an LED upgrade programme.
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly STP
In March 2020, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly's sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) outlined a 2030 net-zero target, in what is believed to be a UK first. Under the arrangement all of the involved organisations will work together to create a system-wide environment plan, headlined by a target to deliver net-zero operational carbon emissions by the end of the decade.
At the time of the announcement it was said that this would take approximately six months to implement, although the pandemic has halted that, with the University of Exeter involved to produce a ‘baseline carbon calculation’ for the NHS organisations, and action plans for reducing carbon in ‘hotspots’.
As part of the move, the STP appointed managers from each organisation to a system-wide sustainability board, as well as appointing executive, non-executive and clinical leads on climate change. Additionally, all NHS organisations in the STP will be required to assess such risks and add them to their registers to ensure that wider physical climate risks and transition risks are factored into financial and business decisions.
According to the STP, 2030 is the most ambitious net-zero deadline set by any NHS region to date. Some smaller NHS entities have 2030 deadlines, but no other regions in their entirety.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Across hospitals and community sites in Northumberland and North Tyneside, Northumbria Healthcare achieved an annual reduction of 6,440 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) based on energy, waste and travel last year. This was a 17 per cent reduction from the previous year with energy consumption being cut by almost half.
Northumbria Healthcare has reduced its energy consumption by installing LED lighting and improving heating and ventilation systems. Additionally, less of the trust’s waste is now being sent to landfill and for high temperature treatment with significant improvements in recycling, especially in clinical areas, thanks to the efforts of staff.
A key focus of the Northumbria’s carbon reduction efforts is travel and transport and alongside its fleet of fully-electric vans, it has increased its electric vehicle infrastructure with almost 80 charging spaces trust-wide, with at least two on each of its sites. Northumbria also supports cycle to work schemes and car sharing for its staff.
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new electronic prescribing system, to better help administer medicines for NHS mental health professionals. Trust staff at more than 70 sites throughout Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire can now securely access a patient’s medication information electronically and issue prescriptions from anywhere. The trust has become the first of its kind in the country to go live with the DXC Technology ePMA component of the Lorenzo electronic patient record system.
The accessibility to ePMA has already resulted in patient safety benefits, and a significant amount of time is being saved by busy hospital staff in both prescribing and administering medications. The trust’s off-site pharmacy partner, LloydsPharmacy, also has direct access to the system, enabling staff to access the information they need directly from community locations.
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Traditionally, patients attending their outpatient appointment would be assessed and supplied with a prescription to be taken to the outpatient pharmacy. However due to the pandemic, the majority of outpatient consultations have been taking place over the phone or using other technology, meaning it is not as easy to get medication to patients who need it.
Pharmacists at Newcastle Hospitals were the first in the UK to use an ‘electronic prescription service’ for their patients during the coronavirus pandemic. The service – previously only available to GP practices and community pharmacies – allows electronic prescriptions to be sent to any community pharmacy in the country.
As teams looked to explore new ways of working due to coronavirus and fewer patients coming into hospital, the pharmacy team at the RVI were given the opportunity to use the scheme as a pilot. As part of the trial, prescriptions were sent electronically to the patient’s community pharmacy where they were dispensed to be collected or delivered to their address if people were unable to leave home due to shielding.
NHS Arden & GEM CSU
Coronavirus presents a particular risk for the care home setting with many frail and elderly individuals, often with compromised immune systems or pre-existing medical conditions, living in close proximity. Isolating this group and reducing the risk of rapid infection is even more challenging set against a circulating group of healthcare workers and increasing demand for care home visits from clinicians.
Arden & GEM is working in partnership with Tekihealth Solutions to deliver a remote healthcare service to care home residents through Teki-Hub – a diagnostic set specifically designed for remote clinical examination.
The solution is specifically designed for remote clinical examination, enabling the doctor to conduct a full clinical assessment through the use of tele-diagnostic equipment. The hand-held modular diagnostic device includes: a video conferencing platform, a high-definition camera to examine the skin for rashes, moles and wounds, a no-touch infrared basal thermometer to take the patient’s temperature, a digital stethoscope to remotely listen to heart and breath sounds, and otoscope and tongue depressor attachments to look into the patient’s ears and throat.
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Throughout the pandemic, the Procurement and Logistics Team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust redesigned their systems and processes to provide an exemplary service, ensuring patients and staff across Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and community services had the PPE and other critical supplies they needed to care for patients.
The work carried out this year has resulted in more than 52 million items of PPE being sourced and delivering over 16.5 million items of PPE within Sheffield Teaching Hospitals alone.
NHS Supply Chain
NHS Supply Chain’s route to market delivers not only cash releasing savings but wider sustainability benefits for NHS customers. As an organisation linked to the NHS and to public health, NHS Supply Chain is committed to ensure the most environmentally and cost-efficient services across the supply chain.
In 2019 more than 200 NHS trusts had made huge environmental savings by simply switching their copier paper. The move from A4 virgin fibre copier paper to A4 recycled paper saved the equivalent of: watching 85,503 hours of a plasma TV in energy; filling 161 Olympic size swimming pools with water; felling 20,000 trees in wood; and travelling 10 times around the world in an aeroplane in Co2.
The switch to recycled copier paper not only delivered environmental savings, it has also driven financial savings to the NHS. By channelling national commitment, reducing variety from two lines of paper (70gsm and 80gsm) to one (80gsm) and changing from virgin to recycled paper, £256,000 has been saved in the first year with a cost avoidance to the NHS of £1,410,000.
As an organisation we continue to drive activities in: reducing waste, saving money and minimising environmental impacts; improving delivery efficiencies and ensuring continuity of supply; procuring and operating responsibly and ethically; and building supply chain resilience.
NHS London Procurement Partnership
The NHS London Procurement Partnership has been working to help the public sector provide high quality healthcare apps to patients and public. The Health and Social Care Apps Dynamic Purchasing System provides public sector organisations with a safe and secure route to market for healthcare apps and has been used to procure new apps for fitness, mental health and most recently, a new NHS England and NHS Improvement app to help patients with diabetes stay well during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Health and Social Care Apps DPS was launched in December last year in partnership with the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA), who assess and accredit every app that applies to join the DPS for accessibility, security, clinical safety and clinical benefit.
NHS Shared Business Services
Public sector organisations can now procure cost-effective auditing, governance and counter fraud services thanks to the Internal and External Audit, Counter Fraud, and Financial Assurance Services Framework, run by NHS Shared Business Services. The agreement is free-to-use for any public sector organisation, and, with a range of 20 suppliers, the framework covers an array of specialisms such as External Audit, Internal Audit, Counter Fraud, Well Led Governance and Ancillary Services.
In developing the framework for the public sector, NHS SBS worked in close partnership with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) on the specification and evaluation of Lot 3, which covers Counter Fraud Services. It offers complete flexibility to the NHS and the wider public sector, with options to directly award contracts or run mini competitions to meet bespoke requirements. It will run until November 2022 with the possibility of extension until 2024.
With average indicative savings of 10-15 per cent compared to buying direct from a supplier at list price, the potential cost saving for the public purse is expected to be significant.
NHS Supply Chain
The NHS Supply Chain: Food tower has been working closely with NHS trusts up and down the UK over the last few months, supporting them through these unprecedented times. The organisation has delivered meal boxes for staff by closely collaborating with hospitals and catering staff by responding to these immediate needs with a specially designed solution.
The success of the meal box scheme delivered: 10,000 lunch boxes for ambulance staff across four days at the height of the pandemic; 2,000 lunch boxes per day for staff at one NHS trust for the foreseeable future; and a new resource for staff meal boxes available to all and suited to a range of allergen and dietary need.
NHS Supply Chain has since turned the lunch box meals for staff into a permanent option that can be accessed ongoing.
The collection of meal boxes include items that can be easily ordered as a set and put together on-site to form meal boxes for staff that suit a variety of situations. The range now covers: Breakfast, Gluten Free, Gluten Free Premium, Premium, Premium Plus, Vegetarian, Vegan and Value.
Hillingdon Hospital
A few months ago, Hillingdon Hospital in Greater London partnered with plant-based subscription company Vibrant Vegan and the Open Kitchen Co. to launch hot vegan meal vending machines. The project ultimately aims to install 500 vending machines in hospitals across the UK by 2023. The Hillingdon launch follows a survey of NHS staff that revealed 78 per cent of employees would choose to eat a hot vegan meal if it was available.
The vending machine is set to be the first of many across UK hospitals, to help ensure our staff have easy and quick access to hot nutritious food whilst at work. The vending machine will be filled with 18 Vibrant Vegan award-winning meals, which will take less than four minutes to cook then dispense from the machine itself or can be heated in a microwave. Staff also have the option to have their food dispensed hot or cold. Meals cost up to £4.95, with the global menu suitable for all dietary needs.
West Suffolk Hospital
Great British Bake Off judge Prue Lieth has been identifying the best catering at hospitals and how to improve them in the future for NHS England, and she highlighted food at West Suffolk Hospital for particular praise. According to her report, the hospital in Bury St Edmunds is one of their top picks, named as one of two dozen best practice sites nationally.
Patients, staff, and visitors are all served the same food across West Suffolk Hospital, with the trust going above and beyond this year to provide arrangements for overnight staff, who have access to hot meals via vending machines and microwave, as well as the introduction of an 'afternoon tea' service as a special culinary treat for inpatients.
The review also calls the trust ‘an exemplar site for using volunteers’, with around 50,000 hours of volunteer time a year given to help patients with their meals.
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT
The catering team at Tameside Hospital took the decision to be greener last year and started by replacing the single use plastics in the Hartshead Restaurant. All takeaway boxes and cutlery were replaced with recyclable alternatives.
As well as dramatically reducing single use plastic use, the team has also thought of the environment when it comes to replacing kitchen equipment. All new equipment has to meet criteria that ensuring it is more energy efficient than the previous item had been. As more items get replaced, the kitchen will become more energy efficient and reduce the carbon output.
There is a wider project at the trust to be green, with the project Save Planet Tameside and Glossop launched last year. The trust hosted a bottle swap where a reusable and biodegradable bottle was exchanged for used single use plastic bottles. The Estates Team are hoping to use the bottles collected during the bottle swap to make a greenhouse.
Musgrove Park Hospital
This year, patients at Musgrove Park Hospital have been offered a selection of familiar drinks, tastes and smells to remind them of home. Part of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, the hospital launched the Taste of Home initiative in May to give people who are being cared for with coronavirus the chance to taste familiar drinks or confectionery while they are away from their loved ones. Many of the people who are being cared for at the hospital with coronavirus may also have difficulties swallowing, or even be nil by mouth, so staff wanted to offer them a chance to safely smell or taste their favourite food and drink.
As part of the initiative, support colleagues had access to a trolley that holds a variety of drinks and comforts, from blackcurrant squash or tea, to frozen lollies or even a small alcoholic tipple.
Estates & Facilities Innovation Award
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust began work at the start of the year to replace its existing 1 megawatt (MW) Combined Heat and Power (CHP) engine with a larger 3.36MW CHP and district heating facility which will enable the organisation to efficiently generate more low carbon electricity and heat.
The organisation has said that the new £10.8 million heating and energy system will reduce the trust's need to import grid electricity. The district heating also replaces steam, reducing heat losses from the heat network.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has set ambitious goals to become carbon neutral by 2030.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
2020 saw United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust embark upon three major energy-saving projects across its main hospital sites to slash carbon emissions.
The trust, one of the biggest acute hospital trusts in England, serving a local population of 720,000, is working with Veolia to introduce a new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) centre at Lincoln County Hospital, funded by Salix Finance. This will provide more efficient heating and hot water facilities for its patients and staff at lower cost. The new centre is expected to be operational by mid-2020.
It will also be installing energy-efficient LED lighting across its main hospital sites – Lincoln County, Grantham Hospital, and Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. The LEDs, funded through the NHSI Energy Efficiency Fund, are expected to last longer than conventional lighting, saving up to 70 per cent in money and energy and creating a better environment for patients and staff.
Finally, the trust intends to utilise Salix Finance to convert the main energy supply at Pilgrim Hospital to gas from heavy fuel oil. This will ensure there is a reliable, lower carbon supply of energy to the site, which is currently working on plans to increase services at the site. Together, the three projects are expected to save the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust more than £1.2 million a year.
NHS England
The NHS has adopted a multiyear plan to become the world’s first carbon net zero national health system. The commitment comes amid growing evidence of the health impacts of climate change and air pollution, and aims to save thousands of lives and hospitalisations across the country.
NHS England convened the NHS Net Zero Expert Panel in January following the launch of the Climate Assembly UK, to take and analyse evidence on how the health service can contribute to nationwide carbon reduction efforts. The panel’s report sets out how the health service has already cut its own carbon footprint by 62 per cent compared to the international-standard 1990 baseline, and by 26 per cent when indirect factors are included.
Based on the findings of the report the NHS has formally adopted two targets, set as the earliest possible credible dates for the NHS to achieve net zero emissions: for the NHS Carbon Footprint (emissions under NHS direct control), net zero by 2040, with an ambition for an interim 80 per cent reduction by 2028-2032; and for the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus, (which includes our wider supply chain), net zero by 2045, with an ambition for an interim 80 per cent reduction by 2036-2039.
NHS Business Services Authority
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has declared a climate emergency and set out aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
As well as working to make a difference across the nation, in support of the government’s environment plan, NHSBSA reports that solar panels at NHSBSA’s Hesketh House in Fleetwood have so far generated enough renewable electricity to power 107 semi-detached homes for a year. Other measures including an air source heat pump to replace gas, are also being put in place in its buildings.
Over 1.5 million patients are cared for by the NHS every day. Uptake of NHSBSA’s Electronic Prescription Service has increased by 13 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has saved an extra six million sheets of paper per month. Over a year, placed end-to-end, these prescriptions would go halfway around the world.
The NHSBSA has removed plastic cards from some exemption schemes including the maternity and Tax Credit exemption certificates; and prescription pre-payment certificates. It is also digitising services where possible to reduce paper use.
Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s leading cancer centres providing highly specialist cancer care to a population of 2.4 million people across Cheshire, Merseyside and the surrounding areas, including the Isle of Man. Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool is the flagship new hospital providing specialist cancer care for people in Cheshire & Merseyside and beyond. The new hospital is part of a £162 million investment in expanding and transforming cancer services across Cheshire and Merseyside, a region where people are more likely to develop the disease than almost anywhere else in the country.
The 11-storey building, which opened in June, has state-of-the-art facilities and will deliver a wide range of highly-specialist care including pioneering chemotherapy, immunotherapy, bone marrow transplant, gene therapy and radiotherapy. The services also include diagnostics and imaging, outpatients, daycase treatments, a Teenage & Young Adult Unit, clinical therapies, and a wide range of cancer information and support.
Bringing cancer experts from the NHS and the University of Liverpool together on the same site will also significantly enhance opportunities for leading-edge cancer research, including early-phase clinical trials of new treatments.
NHS Property Services
Since September, health and well-being providers looking for alternative and flexible ways to deliver services in response to coronavirus have been able to use NHS pay-as-you-go spaces across England. NHS Open Space, the NHS Property Services programme, first launched in Spring 2019 and opens up underused space across the NHS, enabling health and well-being providers to offer much needed services at the heart of local communities, and providing businesses with affordable meeting or office space.
Profits made from this scheme will be reinvested back into the health service for the benefit of patients and to help rebuild the NHS. As well as driving money back into the health service at a critical time, the intuitive booking system means that users only pay for the time and space they need, which could provide much-needed relief on finances for independent and small businesses in the midst of the pandemic.
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
A new and fully equipped 20-bed isolation ward was built at Royal Surrey in record time to provide dedicated care for patients suffering from coronavirus or other infectious diseases. The trust commissioned the bespoke facility to increase hospital capacity and to provide the best possible care to patients during the pandemic.
The resulting Guildford Borough Council Ward comprises 20 isolation rooms which will allow the treatment of patients with infectious diseases away from the main hospital environment. It is fully equipped to provide a high standard of treatment including CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It will initially be used to care for patients with coronavirus, but can be used for the treatment of patients with other infectious diseases in the future.
The Elite Systems modular unit was partly constructed off site and then brought to the main site, making it the ideal solution. It became operational at the beginning of July.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
This autumn has seen Acute Medical Units and stroke teams at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals move to their new homes in the £14 million, 100-bed ward block. They occupy levels one and two respectively, with the third floor housing specialised equipment ready to take more patients when needed.
The trust’s biggest building programme since the hospital opened 20 years ago has also seen a highly specialised negative pressure isolation unit built and equipped with the latest technology to treat patients ready to take the region’s sickest patients. It can be mobilised into action within four hours. The new £7 million Norfolk Centre for Interventional Radiology (NCIR) treated its first patients in September this year.
Innovative modular building processes were used for all these projects which served to reduce building time by a third compared to traditional techniques.
The Norfolk and Norwich Kidney Centre also opened in Bowthorpe earlier this year and has 39 dialysis stations – 10 more than in its former home on the NNUH site – and has a dedicated home therapies unit where patients can be trained to have their dialysis at home.
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
A £22 million state-of-the-art intensive care unit that provides 22 new beds for the south’s most critically ill patients opened at University Hospital Southampton at the start of October. It has taken 18 months to build and has now officially been handed over to University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust by contractors BAM.
Joined to the existing facility, the new 1400-metre square unit can be accessed through a linking corridor. As well as being considerably bigger in size, it includes contemporary lighting, interchangeable windows, hoists to easily manoeuvre patients and innovative storage space for staff.
It also features a specialist rehabilitation area where patients can now have physiotherapy without the need to be taken to another part of the hospital. Specialist equipment has been moved in to the flagship building, which is joined to the current ICU, which will undergo refurbishment next year, adding further capacity.
NHS Employers
NHS Employers is currently working with the Department of Health and Social Care to develop a supportive programme of work to help employers recruit skilled refugees and displaced people into NHS.
The NHS People Plan is clear that international recruitment will be vital to meeting staffing requirements. Employing skilled refugees and displaced people provides opportunities for individuals who may have faced significant hardship and also helps organisations to fill vacancies.
There are a large number of skilled and experienced medical, nurse and healthcare professional refugees and displaced people both within the UK and overseas who are incredibly keen to work in the NHS. With the support of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), NHS Employers aims to launch a pilot programme to match suitable candidates to vacant posts.
Royal Voluntary Service
In March, members of the public were encouraged to sign up as NHS Volunteer Responders and opt to do a number of roles, including: delivering medicines from pharmacies; driving patients to appointments; bringing them home from hospital; or making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home.
405,724 people signed up to volunteer for the NHS to help in its fight against coronavirus, highlighting the ‘overwhelming response’ to the NHS England call in just 24 hours. That figure far exceeded the original target by over 100,000 people, prompting the NHS to extend its target to recruit 750,000 people to its army of volunteers later that month.
Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of Royal Voluntary Service, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed with the number of people who have stepped forward and volunteered to be part of the NHS Volunteer Responders but we are also not surprised – Royal Voluntary Service witnessed a similar response during the outbreak of WW2 when a million women came forward to help those most in need.”
Health Education England
Health Education England has launched a new pan-London consortium to coordinate the recruitment of international nurses. Forming part of the CapitalNurse programme, which first began in 2015, the service will provide NHS trusts with a single point of access for recruiting overseas nurses, allowing them to source the very best staff from multiple countries and agencies at the same time, reducing costs while upholding ethical recruitment principles.
The new consortium supports NHS England and NHS Improvement and HEE’s plans to increase ethical international recruitment and build partnerships with new countries, making sure the supplying country benefits from the arrangement as well as the individual health worker and the NHS.
Six overseas recruitment agencies have been awarded contracts to deliver the service, in what is the first time that London trusts have come together in this way to jointly procure and manage international recruitment.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust has embedded the recruitment of veterans and their families into its recruitment processes and, this year, has been recognised for acting as an exemplar and sharing good practice with other employers.
Step into Health recognises the transferable skills and cultural values that Armed Forces personnel have developed and how these are compatible with working in the NHS. It highlights the many career opportunities available and supports them in gaining employment within the NHS which offers over 350 different careers, clinical and non-clinical.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust is a leading Armed Forces-friendly employer. It was the first NHS employer in the region to achieve the Ministry of Defence's Employer Recognition Gold Award - the highest badge of honour available to those that employ and support those who serve, as well as veterans, and their families. It was also among the first to sign-up to the national Step into Health initiative and has a dedicated Step into Health lead to help ensure that it is fulfilling its pledge to the initiative.
Barnsley Healthcare Federation
Barnsley Healthcare Federation’s PCN model has brought practices together like never before during the coronavirus pandemic with a shift in the focus of GPs and practice staff from an internal 'what's in it for me' approach to 'how to work and achieve together'. Over the past nine months, the organisation has successfully worked as one to provide consistency and support, including a practice buddy system to share staff, collective purchase and distribution of PPE, consistency of remote access and one central coronavirus clinic to maintain the cold status of all other practices.
The clinic has supported over 2000 patients since April enabling practices to remain open and reducing the volume of patients that have attended A&E and practices for coronavirus symptoms. This service has greatly assisted practices and patients whilst also ensuring staff and patient safety. Across the Primary Care at Scale services, Barnsley Healthcare Federation has also provided extended hours throughout the pandemic, supporting over 10,000 patients with an appointment utilisation rate of 80 per cent in March compared to a target of 75 per cent increasing to an average utilisation rate of 92 per cent since August. The OOH service has also delivered medical care to 18,000 patients since March and the Home Visiting Team has provided 1,300 home visits in this time.
NHS Supply Chain
Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, NHS Supply Chain has been working closely with the DHSC, NHS England, NHS Improvement and PHE to supply and deliver products into the NHS. The urgent demand for PPE earlier this year was so unprecedented that despite increasing staffing levels and running NHS Supply Chain’s network 24/7, it became clear more capacity was still needed to help ensure that PPE products were delivered to the front line.
NHS Supply Chain worked to prepare supply chains for the significant increase in equipment and consumables required to equip the NHS Nightingale hospitals. Ventilators, patient monitors, CT scanners and many other products had been in high demand as part of the operation to build additional capacity for the surge of patients with coronavirus in acute trusts and in the new NHS Nightingale Hospitals.
Communications was critical during this pandemic, and the organisation’s customer engagement team quickly organised regular webinars to communicate key developments and service updates for both customers and suppliers. The account management team also stepped up their support and provided 24/7 cover to help customers (Trusts) through this challenging period.
Throughout the months, NHS Supply Chain has received outstanding offers of support from many different suppliers including scrubs where five years’ worth of products were ordered in the first three months of the pandemic. The organisation worked with 12 different suppliers who have adapted and increased their scrubs production to meet demand. The Food Tower has also been working with some of its framework suppliers to donate food and drink to front-line NHS workers, with over 350,000 units of food and drink worth nearly £200,000 being generously donated to 123 NHS hospitals across England.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
Following the outbreak of coronavirus earlier this year, general practices made a sudden switch from traditional consultations to telephone consultations, and, as a short term measure this worked. However a number of patients, many with respiratory problems were considered as possible coronavirus infections, therefore requiring a detailed direct clinical assessment.
At Bridgwater Community Hospital, which is managed by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, nurse practitioners and colleagues from the community urgent care service collaborated with the local Primary Care Network and the local CCG to set up and run a safe Primary Assessment Centre (PAC). This involved all GP practices in the network conducting remote consultations and any patient who gave cause for clinical concern being directed to the PAC where they underwent a comprehensive assessment and, if required, treatment. Fortunately very few patients required onward referral to specialist services at the acute hospital. The majority of patients were seen and cared for, in isolation, in their local communities.
This service was set up in mid April and remained operational until the end of June when the local infection rates fell. During this time local practices were able to focus on remote working and keep their practices safe for seeing patients who had been carefully screened and judged a low infection risk. Whilst similar processes were adopted elsewhere in primary care the PAC at Bridgwater Community Hospital demonstrated successful collaborative working access traditional boundaries and helped forge meaningful professional relationships.
Like many coronavirus responses the community hospital service remains on standby and ready to stand up as and when local infection rates dictate.
NHS Blood & Transport
To help the NHS cope with the second wave of coronavirus, NHS Blood and Transplant has announced that it is opening 14 more blood plasma donation centres to urgently collect plasma for coronavirus treatment trials and potential general use in hospitals.
The new centres began opening last month, and will continue through December, increasing the number of donor centres by 50 per cent, from 28 to 42. The new locations will mean that 80 per cent of potential donors across England can reach one of the donor centres within 45 minutes. The creation of the 14 additional pop-up centres will be supported by recruiting a further 373 donor carers and nurses across all donor centres.
The NHS trials of convalescent plasma are the largest randomised controlled trials for this treatment of coronavirus, and also the first to reach 1,500 randomisations.
NHS Shared Business Services
During the pandemic, NHS Shared Business Services has taken steps to continue providing essential non-clinical NHS services, whilst ensuring the safety and welfare of our own 1,500 employees. As part of this, the organisation transitioned almost 100 per cent of its UK workforce to home-working by the start of April. This meant an additional 900 office-based staff enabled to work remotely within just two weeks.
It meant that, in April and May alone, the Finance and Accounting teams processed 167,000 purchase orders and paid over one million supplier invoices (worth £7.5 billion), whilst managing an additional £46.5 billion cash for the NHS.
Managing the payroll for 400,000 NHS employees across 90 different NHS organisations is no small undertaking in normal times. But since April, all 164 weekly and monthly payrolls have also been processed remotely. In the early stages of the pandemic, NHS SBS also processed over 4,000 new starters a week on behalf of NHS Professionals, compared with an average of 600 before coronavirus – an increase of more than 500 per cent.
Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare
South Warwickshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
In December 2019, the Care Quality Commission rated South Warwickshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as Outstanding overall, making it the first ‘Outstanding’ acute and community healthcare provider in the Midlands.
The inspectorate said that the Midlands-based trust was seen to have made several improvements since its last inspection in January 2018, when it was rated as Good overall. Among the positives highlighted in the CQC’s report was leaders having the experience, commitment, integrity and skills to run a high quality and proactive service that was fully patient-centred, and the organisation promoting equality and diversity in daily work and provided opportunities for career development.
The rating follows inspections of a number of clinical services across the organisation's acute hospital and community services. In addition, the CQC carried out 'Well Led' and 'Use of Resources' inspections. All areas inspected were given ‘outstanding’ ratings.
Thames Valley Air Ambulance
Thames Valley Air Ambulance, which primarily serves the communities of the Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, was rated as Outstanding following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission this year. The independent ambulance service was rated as Outstanding for being safe, caring and well-led and Good for being effective and responsive to people’s needs.
Among her comments, CQC inspector Catherine Campbell said that ’there was a strong culture of openness, honesty and learning’ and that ’the service and staff took a proactive approach to safeguarding’. Thames Valley carry both packed red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma on all its vehicles, enabling clinicians to give transfusions in an emergency setting.
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in November and December 2019, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Outstanding. The organisation was credited for having a ‘determination to develop a culture of continuous improvement’, and that the resulting positive culture meant that ‘staff felt passionate about delivering good quality care’.
Quality improvement methodology was embedded throughout the trust and was championed at all levels from ward to board, giving genuine opportunities for staff and patients to identify areas for improvement and make changes. The trust has also been found to be innovative when it comes to developing different approaches to care, with the CQC highlighting how staff in community adult services were able to upload pictures to the trust’s electronic record system, allowing for immediate analysis and advice.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the first healthcare trust in the UK to achieve the highest international quality standard that recognises the use of technology, data and analytics to support inpatient care.
The Trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals, has reached ‘Stage 7’ – the highest rating of the HIMSS Analytics international Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). A rigorous assessment was hosted virtually in October, with HMSS inspectors observing clinical staff using the trust’s Epic electronic patient record system, electronic data and analytics, to demonstrate how digital use is embedded within clinical practice for patient care.
Areas inspected included wards, the emergency department, critical care and anaesthetics, paediatrics, pharmacy, transfusion, radiology, cardiology, laboratories, clinical coding and medical records. Other areas of patient safety were demonstrated to inspectors including medication administration, specimen collection, administration of communally stored human milk, and blood transfusion.
