Musgrove wins health and social care award (From This is The West Country)

Musgrove wins health and social care award

12:00pm Friday 10th July 2009

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TAUNTON’S Musgrove Park Hospital has won a Health and Social Care Award for designing an innovative piece of technology to reduce the number of double-booked and missed surgeries, and cut down waiting times for operations.

Handwritten surgery timetables have been replaced by an interactive computer programme, allowing staff across the hospital to see a list of admitted trauma patients, improving communications between surgeons and nurses.

After winning the Innovative Acute Care award at the regional heat of the Health and Social Care Awards, the team was short-listed for the national award, and saw off two other finalists to take home the accolade.

The category recognises innovative practice within short-term care settings, improving the delivery of services for patients.

Dr Ian Sidwell, who leads the project, said: “The interactive whiteboard has done wonders to improve communication which has really benefited patients.

“We’re delighted that we’ve been recognised in this way and I hope that other trusts may find our programme helpful.”

The Health and Social Care Awards, which are run in partnership between the Department of Health and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, are designed to recognise breakthrough ideas from frontline staff that improve care and access to services.

The awards this year received 4,000 applications, an increase of over 30% on last year.

Bernard Crump, chief executive of the NHS Institute, said: “These awards recognise the frontline NHS staff who are leading the way, pioneering new ideas and methods to improve the quality of care for their patients and increase productivity.

“Once again the awards have demonstrated that frontline staff in the NHS have the skills and understanding to radically change our health service for the better.”

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