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Discover, develop, deploy: creating an innovation pipeline for the West of England

Blog article

As we celebrate the 75th birthday of the NHS this year, our Chief Executive Natasha Swinscoe and Chair Steve West reflect on another milestone we are also marking here at the West of England AHSN. We’ve come a long way together since we were first established in 2013 as you can see from our illustrated…

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Photo shows pharmacist selecting medicines from shelf

Creating shared learning spaces to help clinicians address problematic polypharmacy

Blog article

Chris Learoyd is Senior Project Manager at the West of England AHSN, overseeing our medicines optimisation programmes. In this blog, Chris explores some of the work we are currently involved in to help reduce harm from medicines. Medicines safety and improvement work is complex: patients are prescribed medicines in different settings across the entire healthcare…

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Getting the balance right on polypharmacy

Blog article

The AHSN Network recently launched the new national polypharmacy programme: getting the balance right. Here national Programme Manager, Amy Semple and Clinical Lead, Clare Howard discuss why we need to take action to address problematic polypharmacy and how the AHSN Network is supporting this important area of work. “As we live longer with more long-term…

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A conversation with Robert Woolley

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Robert Woolley was a founding board member of the West of England AHSN since our very earliest days when we were first licensed by NHS England back in 2013. With a distinguished career in the NHS spanning more than 30 years, he retired as Chief Executive of University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust…

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Translating academic research ideas into health and care innovation

Blog article

Faiza Abdul Aziz is an impact administrator and master’s student at the University of Bath, who recently attended our Lunch with Impact event for University of Bath researchers, hosted by our Industry and Innovation team. In this blog, Faiza shares her insights and learnings from the session, including how the AHSN can support academic researchers…

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The value of coming together with MatNeo colleagues

Blog article

Bea Chubb is a Midwife at Yeovil District Hospital and is currently on secondment to the West of England AHSN project managing local delivery of the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (known as MatNeoSIP). In this blog, Bea tells us what she’s learnt during her time at the AHSN and how valuable it is…

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Emergency Department Safety Checklist

High impact users – changing the culture

Blog article

Sally Buckland from the Bristol Royal Infirmary reflects on setting up their High Impact User Team and the launch of the SHarED project with the West of England AHSN. Within every Emergency Department you will find a cohort of patients who have multiple attendances. Many of these patients have multiple needs and a high proportion…

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The future of healthcare: turning challenges into opportunities through powerful partnership working

Blog article

In the first of our blogs about our pioneering Future Challenges programme, project leads Urszula Kapoulas and Rosie Brown share their passion for the programme’s cross-sector partnership working and its potential to deliver positive change. The Future Challenges programme – what’s it all about? The Future Challenges is a ground-breaking West of England AHSN-designed programme…

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2020 – The year of learning through adversity

Blog article

Natasha Swinscoe, Chief Executive of the West of England AHSN, looks back on the last 12 months. As I reflect on the year that was 2020, two quotes spring to mind, from very different sources. Firstly there are Michelle Obama’s motivational words: “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for…

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“So… what do they do?” A view from a new starter

Blog article

Emma Ryan started with the West of England AHSN Communications team in September, and wrote this blog a couple of weeks into her new role. In the Summer of COVID-19, I sat at home, 2 months into furlough with the likelihood of looming redundancies in the hospitality business I worked in and had grown to…

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