Innovating and improving healthcare in 2024 - reflections from Nicola Bent, Chief Executive of Health Innovation Wessex

In 2024, Health Innovation Wessex made significant strides in helping our partner organisations to improve health outcomes, in fostering innovation, and in driving economic growth in the life sciences and healthcare sector both locally and nationally. As a result of our support to adopt and evaluate new technology and ideas, NHS organisations have implemented innovations to improve services, see more patients, reduce waiting lists, and release clinicians' time. I am proud of both the local and national impact that we have had in finding, testing, and embedding innovation. This wouldn’t have been possible without the close partnerships we have with our member organisations innovators, industry, academia, and local communities, and the willingness of staff to adapt to new ways of working for the benefit of patients.  

Here is a look at some of our highlights from 2024: 

Improving Health Outcomes 

During 2024 we were instrumental in a wide variety of initiatives and partnerships, to improve health outcomes, highlighting our commitment to improving health outcomes in the community. For example, through a collaborative effort to support NHS organisations to resolve systemic challenges, more than 12,180 referrals for early cancer detection have been made.  

In Dorset, our work supported 1,100 women to benefit from a new pathway for managing pelvic health conditions, which includes education and exercises. We also supported roll-out of an innovations that have enhanced the lives of children with type 1 diabetes in Dorset, through enabling better blood glucose monitoring.  Finally, we successfully assisted a clinical innovator in creating training and educational materials for neonatal teams, aimed at better supporting parents in feeding their premature babies. By providing mothers and perinatal teams with a comprehensive toolkit of accessible resources, the number of infants receiving breast milk in neonatal units has increased 

Boosted Patient Safety 

We enhanced patient safety by supporting our seven acute trusts across Wessex to pilot and implement the components of Martha’s Rule, a major patient safety initiative which provides patients and their families with a way to seek an urgent review if their loved one’s condition deteriorates. We also supported GP practices to provide accessible medicines information for diverse communities to encourage medication reviews with healthcare professionals . 

Medicines Optimisation 

We were recognised nationally for our approach to support healthcare professionals in their efforts to support patients with medicines optimisation, tackling complex prescribing issues like medication safety, overuse, and polypharmacy with over 142 clinicians completing our Polypharmacy Action Learning Set training. 

Boosted Innovation   

During 2024, 263 innovators received our support, with 163 receiving in-depth assistance. We provided 11,029 hours of innovation adoption support to help them develop their ideas and access the NHS. In addition to this support, our real-world evaluations helped innovators scale up their ideas by clearly demonstrating their impact in healthcare settings.  

Our efforts saw innovators safeguard and create fifty jobs in the Wessex region, and we contributed to a national £2.6bn boost to the life sciences economy as part of our membership of the Health Innovation Network. 

Partnerships 

Throughout 2024, strong partnerships and collaboration helped us to develop and spread innovation, improving the health of patients, and generating a thriving economy across Wessex, South East and South West regions. It was a privilege to be invited to contribute to the House of Lords debate on Unlocking Healthcare Delivery: Navigating Data and Innovation in the NHS at the local level, where I spoke about the importance of building workforce capacity and capability in the health service to sustain innovation. We look forward to contributing to future roundtables and debates to help us deliver local change with national impact.  

Join Us 

In 2025 we remain committed to working closely with our healthcare systems, innovators, industry partners, and communities to provide solutions to the big challenges in health and care. Connect with us at Health Innovation Wessex to be part of our journey in transforming healthcare. 

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