UCLPartners awards £40,000 funding to improve patient safety

Five teams have been awarded over £40,000 of funding by UCLPartners to develop new ways of improving patient safety.

UCLPartners set up the new fund to support frontline teams and organisations from across our region to further develop and spread interventions to support improvements in patient safety.  The interventions range from new technologies to new ways of delivering care. This new fund aims to plug the gap that exists for those wishing to implement existing innovations and improvements.

Teams were invited to bid for funding of up to £10,000.  A large number of applications were received with nine teams invited to pitch to an expert panel which included patient and clinician representation.

The teams are and their interventions are:

• Princess Alexandra Hospital: introduce a procalcitonin test to improve the management of patients with suspected sepsis in the Emergency Department
• Royal Free London Hospital: implement a new pathway to improve the management of women suffering from post-partum haemorrhage
• Whittington Health: introduce a programme to train health care assistants to provide enhanced care (‘one-to-one’) for vulnerable or critically ill patients in hospital.
• Homerton Hospital: introduce an “electronic whiteboard” to enable better detection of patients at risk of deterioration
• Barnet Hospital: implement a programme to transform the care of babies in the neonatal unit, which makes parents primary caregivers in partnership with clinical teams.

Kate Hall, Director of Capability Development, said “Supporting improvements to patient safety is a priority for UCLPartners. We know that many great ideas exist across our region and the wider health system, but often there are practical barriers that stand in the way of teams being able to adopt them. This funding, together with the support, coaching and advice that will be available from UCLPartners, provides an opportunity to help develop new and improved ways to deliver safe healthcare. We look forward to seeing the progress the five teams make to ensure as many patients as possible benefit from their interventions.”

The funding is one of a number of ways in which UCLPartners support patient safety. Read more about our patient safety work.