West Midlands health and social care teams awarded innovation and improvement funding

West Midlands health and social care teams awarded innovation and improvement funding

Six health and social care teams from across the West Midlands have been awarded up to £10,000 in funding from the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN). The Safety Innovation & Improvement Fund will provide each team with funding to support the spread or adoption of an innovation or improvement resulting in improvements for patients and service users.

Successful projects, which will be awarded the funding, includes Self-testing devices for anti-coagulation patients from The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which aim to empower a larger cohort of patients to self-manage their chronic long-term conditions.

Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will be working to improve the safety of intravenous drug therapy with its Reducing incidence and harm of extravasations project. The Trust has also been selected to receive funding for an additional project, Induction of labour co-ordinator which will establish an effective process for inducing labour while reducing risk to expectant mothers.

New Cross CALM: Civility, Appreciation and Learning in Maternity from The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, will be working to create an environment of high psychological safety and continuous learning in its maternity department.

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust’s Learning from Excellence QI initiative will use Learning from Excellence and QI approaches to help staff to feel valued and assist them with identifying improvements in patient care.

Finally, funding to Wye Valley NHS Trust Care homes aspiration pneumonia prevention service (CHAPPS) will enable them to deliver training resources and provide support to care homes in Herefordshire, raising staff awareness of the contributory factors for contracting pneumonia.

Jodie Mazur, Head of Patient Safety at the WMAHSN, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer vital funding to these worthy applicants working in the health and social care sector across the West Midlands.

“The Safety Innovation and Improvement Fund is a fantastic opportunity for the staff working in these teams to access funds and support which will assist them in making improvements for their patient and service users.”

Each of the six health and social care teams will be able to use the funding to test and refine their projects, spread the innovations to additional sites or work in partnership with one or more other sites in the region.

Karl Emms, Extravasation Project Lead & Lead Nurse for Patient Safety at Birmingham Women’s & Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “On behalf of BWC and the Extravasation Project Team, I’d like to thank the WMAHSN for this fantastic opportunity and support. We are excited to be able to improve the safety of IV therapy for our women and children as it’s such a key aspect of their care.”

Maddy Roberts, CHAPP Service and Project Lead at Wye Valley NHS Trust, added: “The funds allocated to us represent a massive boost to the planned intervention as they will pay for resources such as educational leaflets, dysphagia cups for care homes, and laminated posters for staff to remind them how to minimise risk for infection.”

To find out more about the Safety Innovation & Improvement Fund, click here