News
Department of Health creates new education bodies to promote
innovation in NHS
12 January 2010
The Department of Health is funding a set of new bodies, called
Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs), that combine the
expertise of industry, health and education, to promote innovation in
the NHS.
HIECs are cross-sector partnerships between NHS organisations, the
higher education sector and blue chip companies such as BMW,
GlaxoSmithKline and BT.
Through joint working, HIECs will provide professional education and
training and promote innovation in healthcare by speeding up the
adoption of research.
Over £11 million will be given to the 17 successful applicants (see
below) that
were chosen by an Independent Award Panel Chaired by Sir Alan Langlands,
Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Health Minister Ann Keen said: “HIECs are special partnerships that
draw on the wealth of skills and experience of their members to improve
the development of high quality care and services by quickly bringing
the benefits of research and innovation directly to patients.
"These projects will attract and encourage the best talent who can
recognise and rapidly adopt new and innovative healthcare and
treatment."
Independent Award Channel Chairman, Sir Alan Langlands, said: “The
standard of applications has been really high and we have been impressed
by the high profile names that want to be involved in improving NHS
care. HIECs will drive up quality standards in education and training and
ensure fast adoption of innovation for the benefit of local people. The flexibility of the HIEC model means that the vision of each one
is appropriate and specific to its local area."
HIECs offer a way of separating the commissioning and provision of
education, a move that was also recommended by the NHS Next Stage
Review (the Darzi report) as essential to ensuring effective high
quality training. This commissioner / provider split is already
operational for some healthcare professions and is in progress for
postgraduate medical and dental education.
The overall responsibility for commissioning education will remain
with the strategic health authorities (SHAs) and the current
commissioning functions of the postgraduate deanery should remain with
the SHA.
The winning applications are:
|
SHA
|
HIEC
|
Work programme
|
|
NHS East Midlands
|
East Midlands HIEC
Principal partner —
University of Leicester
|
Focus on NHS East Midlands regional priorities. Including
work on Acute Care Transformation, Stroke, COPD and
Leadership development
|
|
NHS East of England
|
Cambridge University Health Partners Regional HIEC
Principal partner —
Cambridge University Health Partners
|
10 goals mapped to national goals and regional ‘pledges’
including early work on management of long term conditions,
and improving end of life care.
|
|
NHS East of England
|
Norfolk and Waveney HIEC
Principal partner —
Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS
Foundation Trust
|
Older people:
mental health, acute services, long term conditions and
end of life care.
|
|
NHS London
|
North East London, North Central London, and Essex HIEC
Principal partner — Queen Mary University of London
|
Prevention, acute care, chronic conditions.
|
|
NHS London
|
North West London HIEC
Principal partner —
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust
|
Cancer and cardiovascular services
|
|
NHS London
|
South London HIEC
Principal partner —
Kings College London
|
Diabetes, mental health, stroke and infection.
|
|
NHS North East
|
North East Quality Accelerator HIEC
Principal partner —
One North East
|
Long term conditions, care of the dying, enhancing rural
access to health and care closer to home
|
|
NHS North West
|
Greater Manchester HIEC
Principal partner — Manchester PCT
|
Long term conditions, cancer, mental health, dementia and
stroke
|
|
NHS North West
|
Merseyside and Cheshire HIEC
Principal partner —
University of Liverpool
|
Drug safety, children’s health, mental and physical
health, cancer
|
|
NHS North West
|
Lancashire and Cumbria HIEC
Principal partner —
North Lancashire Teaching PCT
|
Stroke, mental health and end of life care.
|
|
NHS South Central
|
Thames Valley HIEC
Principal partner —
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
|
Service integration, patient safety and patient and
public involvement.
|
|
NHS South Central
|
Wessex HIEC
Principal partner —
University of Southampton
|
Telecare, service transformation and preventative and
public health improvements
|
|
NHS South West
|
HIEC South West
Principal partner —
University of Bristol
|
Maternity and newborn care, planned care – anaesthetic
and pain management, prevention
|
|
NHS West Midlands
|
Keele, Staffordshire, Stoke and Shropshire HIEC
Principal partner —
Keele University
|
Closely aligned with NHS West Midlands ‘Fit for the
future’ programme
|
|
NHS West Midlands
|
West Midlands Central HIEC
Principal partner —
University of Birmingham
|
Education mapping and advisory service, workforce
planning, education quality, knowledge management,
innovation and re-design, industry and technical innovation.
|
|
NHS West Midlands
|
West Midlands South HIEC
Principal partner —
The University of Warwick
|
Long term conditions, dementia and end of life care
|
|
NHS Yorkshire and the Humber
|
Yorkshire and the Humber HIEC
Principal partner —
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust
|
Long term conditions, maternal and infant health and
patient safety
|
|