Almost a month in it is time to pause and reflect on what has been achieved so far.

With so much happening across the NHS at present, I am struck by the high energy levels and commitment to find better ways of serving patients and the communities we serve almost everywhere I visit.

In addition to the projects we have started to work on, the HIEC has been asked to help co-ordinate the Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) and link the work of the innovation support organisations in the South West to health and social care community QIPP plans.

The response to the RIF was huge. There were 248 applications from across the South West covering a wide range of topics. All of the bids have been scored and final decisions regarding both small and large funds are likely to be made in September. I have been talking with the Young Foundation (who have been working nationally to support the programme), with NHS Innovations South West and with PenCLARHC about how to get the most from the bids and we should have a programme in place by the launch.

The South West Annual innovation Report is being put together at present. When I started my work on this I had a Monty Python ‘what have the Roman’s ever done for us?’ moment. It turns out to be quite a lot! There are some fantastic individual examples, some whole region efforts and really interesting programmes demonstrating clinical leadership and involvement. It seems to me that because we are always motivated to spot the gaps and areas for further improvement too often we miss what has been achieved. Lots of projects are delivering results already and many are building capacity and capability for the future – just what the innovation process is about.

I am also working with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and South West Development Centre to work out how best to support the local health and social care communities deliver their QIPP plans. There has already been a number of really helpful conversations and by the end of September we expect to have a work plan in place. It has been really good to catch up with Elaine Latham, who is taking over as Area Director for the NHS Institute, with Mark Outhwaite who is leaving the role and with Paddy Cooney of SWDC. By linking the skills of these organisations with the teams in each of the communities I am sure we will be able to make the most of the talent across the region.

So to the reflective piece. What is clear is there is definitely a role for the HIEC in co-ordinating activity and making connections across the South West. There is a lot of expertise and capacity in self care and telemedicine and telehealth across the region – both areas that feel like major opportunities for the future. There is growing interest in simulation and its role in improvement and education. Most importantly, there are lots of people who will apply discretionary effort to innovation and improvement. What I am going on holiday thinking about is how best to support and harness that enthusiasm.

Answers on a postcard soon.

Sasha

It’s been an exciting first week for me in my new role as Director of the Health Innovation Education Cluster for the South West (HIEC(SW). All of the enthusiasm that was demonstrated during the bidding phase from colleagues in the NHS, universities and industry has continued and several useful conversations have already started.

The first success has been the development of the website (www.hiecsw.org) and , if you are reading this, you must have found us. Many thanks to Kirsten, Pauline and Damien of the Hemingway Corporation for setting this up. The whole development process has taken under two weeks and I hope the web will provide a useful place for you to interact and share ideas and resources. We have set up Twitter and Facebook pages to support the sharing of information and development of our network and we hope these will be useful places to share and debate topics of interest.

We met with the SHA and PCT leads for long term conditions this week to start to understand the scope of our work on self care support. There is a huge amount of evidence of what is possible and what the potential benefits for patients are. The scale of the challenge is huge: Across the South West we serve a community of over 5.1m people and through an NHS workforce of 135,000 together with many other networks and partnerships. We hope to build on enthusiasm and commitment of the leads to support design and implementation of a programme and we will have more on this over the next week.

I also met with Hiu Lam, Director of Medical Education, Christina Quinn, Associate Director of Workforce Development and Martin Quinn Academic Services Manager from Plymouth Hospitals Trust. They have formed a small group to work with the HIEC and we will be working to make this mutually beneficial.

On Saturday I was a member of faculty at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement Open School for medical students hosted by University College London. The Open School concept was established by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to introduce undergraduates to the safety and quality agenda. It was great to see teams from both the University of Bristol and PCMD joining this group of 150 students and I hope that Trust’s will want to harness their insight, energy and enthusiasm to support work on safety and the Quality Innovation Productivity Prevention plans (QIPP).

Next week we will be working on our second project – working with Tim Draycott and team at North Bristol to develop the obstetric dashboard. A lot of work has already been done to define the measures that matter most to safe care. The aim of the project is to make the data available and ensure that the resources are in place to act on information.

I’ve mentioned ‘we’ a few times. The HIEC(SW) is working from the Dean’s office at University of Bristol Medical School. Carolyn Donaghue is working as part time business manager for the HIEC and is doing great work to set up systems to support our work and we will let you know more about this shortly. Our steering board consists of Professor Peter Mathiesson, Dean of University of Bristol Medical School, Professor Peta Foxhall from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), Derek Sprague from NHS South West and Carolyn and I. We will be looking for an NHS and industry member too and more news on that will be available soon.

Finally, I was lucky enough to attend the NHS South West Board briefing on the White Paper. There are clearly many questions to answer to make the most of the opportunities presented. Sir Ian applauded the audience for what has been achieved across the South West since 2006. Taking a moment to reflect, there is a huge amount to be proud of and I think we can be confident we can start to take the next steps building on more solid foundations than most.

Sasha