Health institute in Leeds launches
A new health quality institute which will take an innovative approach to improving the health of people in Leeds has been launched.
The Institute is a partnership between all the NHS Trusts and commissioners in Leeds, the City Council and the University of Leeds. The Institute has been set up because patients have increasingly complex health needs, and require more joined up care between the community and the hospital. The Institute will be based at the Centre for Innovation in Health Management (CIHM) at Leeds University Business School.
Becky Malby, Director of the CIHM, said: “This new partnership is led by senior medical and nurse leaders who are developing new ways of working together to meet ever changing health needs. As patients receive care from a range of NHS organisations, so clinicians across the city must be able to provide joined up solutions that work well for patients and their carers.
“The Leeds Institute for Quality Healthcare creates a focus for excellent professional clinical practice in partnership with service users and carers. We are bringing in the best ideas from international places where there is high-performing health care, and adapting them to our Leeds situation. We are combining these ideas with our own expertise, particularly in working with patients/ service users, carers and communities. This is one of the first times that the NHS and social care has tried to improve quality across a whole city, with all the health and social care professionals working here.”
Dr Gordon Sinclair, Clinical Chair of NHS Leeds West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “Some of our traditional ways of working are changing. We are getting much better information about illness and treatment, we have rapidly advancing technology and different options for providing care. We believe the best way to tackle this is by getting all the nursing and medical leaders in the city together to plan new ways of working.
“We believe that decisions made between professionals and patients based on good data will lead to better care, and that clinical professionals need senior management support to give great care that works across the hospital and home settings. Every patient is different and so we expect care to be varied based on need; but we also expect clinicians to explain any difference to their colleagues and learn from each other’s practice.”
The Leeds Institute for Quality Healthcare will bring together clinical staff from across the health service to have training together to continuously improve health and social care services; to support the generation and analysis of healthcare data in NHS organisations so that clinicians and patients can make better choices of treatment and care together; and to develop new innovations in people’s health care.
Amanda Thomas, the Executive Medical Director for Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “Ensuring innovation and excellence across the system is a challenge for us all, and the new Institute is dedicated to making the most of our clinical knowledge about the best treatment and care. I am sure the new institute will make a huge difference to the care people receive.”
Suzanne Hinchcliffe, Chief Nurse at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust described how taking this decision to develop the institute made the most sense. She says: “We know that working and learning together about improving care is the fastest, most economical way to get the best we can for service users. Creating this focus through the Institute will make room for what we need to do to make the biggest impact. We also know involving service users in that work will add even more value, so that is a key part of our plan.”
The Leeds Institute for Quality Healthcare was launched on Monday 7 April 2014.
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