10 July 2019
MPs in England have honoured NHS West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Wessex Academic Health Science Network for excellence in this year’s NHS Parliamentary Awards.
NHS West Hampshire’s Quality Team and Wessex Academic Health Science Network introduced an early warning system in local care homes to help staff decide if a resident is just ‘under the weather’ or at risk of a serious illness, like sepsis.
When care and nursing home staff see that a resident is becoming unwell, they can use the system called ‘RESTORE2’ to combine these ‘soft signs’ with standard observations, using the National Early Warning Score, and get the right level of urgent or emergency help.
This enables residents to receive care in the most appropriate place, at the right time and by the most competent person, preventing hospital admissions and saving lives.
The National Early Warning Score returns a score between 0 and 20 based on the results of:
Patients with a score of five or more are at risk of severe illness, poor recovery and need urgent assessment and treatment. The tool supports local GPs to make an assessment based on what care is required when and by whom, to ensure prompt intervention.
Matt Inada-Kim, consultant acute physician, from Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "RESTORE2 is a wonderful example of what a region can accomplish when it works together. The Wessex quality improvement programme, networking, discussions and joint brainstorming across organisational boundaries enabled the creation of a tool that improves the recognition, communication and response to acutely unwell patients in care facilities - a very vulnerable group of people.
"It has been proven to safely improve the effectiveness of all of these processes and has now been adopted in seven other AHSN areas across England.
"The collaboration between West Hampshire CCG, Wessex PSC, AHSN, the Wessex LMC and South Central Ambulances has not only led to this wonderful project, but paved the way of a series of really exciting, disruptive, initiatives that will radically improve the healthcare of Wessex residents in the near future."
West Hampshire CCG is leading the roll out to care homes and has already had enquiries from colleagues in Lancashire, Surrey, Sussex, Somerset and Berkshire, all of whom are keen to learn about the initiative.
Heather Hauschild, Chief Officer at West Hampshire CCG, said: “I would like to offer huge congratulations to everyone involved in the roll out of Restore2 especially local GPs and care homes. It is a fantastic achievement to win a Parliamentary Award and very much deserved. It is also reflects our commitment to working with other partners in Hampshire, who provide health and care, to keep people safe and well.
Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “It has once again been a privilege to celebrate with some of the extraordinarily dedicated and selfless health and care heroes who make the NHS what it is today - the much-loved institution that our patients say is what makes them most proud to be British.
“From those who have devoted their lives to helping people and supporting some of our most vulnerable, to delivering pioneering lifesaving treatments, the NHS Parliamentary awards are rightly honouring those who continue to make a huge contribution to our country, through our NHS Long Term Plan.”
The awards were launched in 2018 to recognise the massive contribution made by those working in and alongside the NHS.
We were among the 12 winners – selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by over 230 MPs – to receive their awards at a ceremony on the Palace of Westminster’s Terrace Pavilion, hosted by Dr Sara Kayat, NHS GP & TV Doctor. Health Select Committee Chair Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP, and the panel of judges who collectively represent millions of NHS staff, patients and carers all paying tribute to the outstanding local NHS heroes.
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