COVID-19: patient safety in a pandemic
Blog article
In the second of our series looking at our learning from COVID-19, Kevin Hunter, Associate Director for Patient Safety & Programme Delivery at West of England AHSN, reflects on his experiences ensuring safer care during the pandemic. I have worked in the patient safety team at the West of England AHSN for over five years…
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Sharing learning from our QI Summer Series
News
During July and August 2020 the West of England Academy, aided by guest facilitators and speakers, held weekly Quality Improvement (QI) webinars. This season of learning, known as the QI Summer Series, was fully booked with a lengthy waiting list. We are also delighted to say the series received 100% positive feedback from attendees, no…
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Supporting Care Homes: Transfer of Care Around Medicines
News
Since 2018, as one of the AHSN Network’s national adoption and spread programmes, Transfer of Care Around Medicines (TCAM) has been an important medicines safety project for the West of England AHSN. Upon discharge from hospital, 30-70% of patients experience unintentional changes to their medications or an error is made because of a miscommunication. 37%1…
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Increasing support workers’ confidence to spot deterioration
Blog article
Mildred Mhlanga is a manager at Silva Care, which provides various care services across Bristol, including supported living, respite and outreach services. Silva Care’s support workers help service users with medical appointments, making referrals and signposting to relevant health professionals. Mildred felt a knowledge of NEWS2 could complement the skills of their support workers and…
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New King’s Fund report on transformative technology for long-term health conditions
News
A new King’s Fund report, part funded by the West of England AHSN, titled Technology and innovation for long-term health conditions uses four unique case studies to outline and discuss key themes of effective implementation of digital innovation. AHSNs commissioned the King’s Fund to explore four different digital innovations in health services from the UK and…
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Learning Disabilities Collaborative: watch the webinar
News
The West of England AHSN hosted a webinar on 15 June for our Learning Disabilities Collaborative with topics including COVID-19, recognising and responding to physical deterioration, annual health checks and looking ahead to this year’s flu vaccination programme. Find out more about the work of the West of England Learning Disabilities Collaborative here. Resources for…
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Supporting primary care – listen to our webinars
News
Recordings of three COVID-19 webinars from the Royal College of General Pratictioners (RCGP) and the national AHSN Network are now available to watch online, featuring our Primary Care Clinical Lead, Dr Alison Tavare. COVID-19 and children Recorded on 9 July, this webinar covered identifying and managing non-COVID-related illness, a brief review of the wider impact…
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Preventing surgical site infection across the region
News
Since November 2019 we have been running a collaborative project across the West of England to reduce the incidence of surgical site infection after elective colorectal surgery. Surgical site infection (SSI) refers to wound infections following invasive surgical procedures. SSI is a major healthcare burden accounting for 14.5% of all hospital acquired infections in the…
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Quality Improvement in the age of COVID – launching PERIPrem
Blog article
Noshin Menzies, Senior Project Manager, shares her experiences of launching a Quality Improvement programme during COVID. If you’d told me 4 months ago we would be where we are today with PERIPRem, I’d have wondered what planet you were from. This exciting, ambitious care bundle, the vision of two extraordinary neonatologists, was going to launch…
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Midwives rise to the challenge in the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife
Blog article
Ann Remmers, Maternal and Neonatal Clinical Lead for the West of England AHSN, reflects on how brilliantly midwives are adjusting to working in these unprecedented times, and thanks each and every midwife for the amazing job they are doing. No one could ever have predicted what a momentous year the International Year of the Nurse…
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