East Midlands Strategic Health Authority have announced nine new ground-breaking innovation projects which could increase savings for the NHS to £13m at a regional event.
The projects have received more than £750,000 funding from the 2011/12 East Midlands Regional Innovation Fund and it is estimated that by improving the way patient care is delivered and thereby reducing the NHS’ operating costs, they could achieve at least £2m in productivity savings – which when added to the savings potential of previously funded projects, could make a total of £13m which can be ploughed back into NHS services.
They were showcased at the NHS Midlands and East Innovation Expo at Loughborough University which brought together around 370 delegates from healthcare, universities, social care, industry, the independent and the voluntary sectors.
The event included presentations and displays from NHS innovations across East Midlands, West Midlands and East of England. On the day, there were speeches from the new NHS Midlands and East SHA cluster leaders including Kaye Burnett, Vice Chair for NHS Midlands and East and Dr Stephen Dunn, NHS Midlands and East Director of Policy and Strategy.
In the afternoon, Professor Allan Barrell, Entrepreneur in Residence at both the University of Cambridge, England, and McMaster University, Canada shared his views on the international lessons learned and innovation tips for the NHS.
Established to offer frontline health care staff the opportunity to turn their ideas for quality improvement into action and inspire NHS staff to improve care even more, the East Midlands’ Regional Innovation Fund received bids from each of five PCT Clusters in the region, who were keen to show their commitment and dedication to making continual improvements in patient care, in the latest application process. The bids were then assessed by a panel and challenged before a decision was made to support them.
