NHS South East Coast - Welcome to our region
About NHS South East Coast
The south east coast region covers the counties of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. The NHS serves a population of approximately 4.2 million in a predominantly rural environment, dotted with cities such as Guildford, Canterbury and Brighton.
The health and wellbeing in our region varies, there are some areas with very good health and other areas of high deprivation. People within the region tend to live for longer than other parts of the country and is therefore predominately older.
Our vision
Our vision, Healthier people; excellent care, sets out our priority areas for improving the quality of healthcare services available to our population.
We are delivering healthier people excellent care through adoption and spread of innovation and by developing and supporting our clinical pathway groups.
To provide better care for our patients we have identified the following priority care pathways where we can make improvements to the way that care is delivered these include:
End of life care
Planned care
Maternity and newborn care
Acute Care
Mental health
Long Term Conditions
In addition to the priority clinical pathways we have identified enabling pathways of which innovation is one.
To find our more visit www.southeastcoast.nhs.uk/hpec
Where health care is provided
Across Kent, Surrey and Sussex the NHS spends approximately £7.2 billion on healthcare every year. There are 25 local NHS organisations delivering patient care which includes:
12 acute hospital NHS trusts
One community NHS trust
Three mental health NHS trusts
One ambulance service NHS
We also have one of the first social enterprises delivering healthcare in Surrey, Central Surrey Health.
Central Surrey Health is the first of a new kind of not-for-profit organisation that provides community nursing and therapy services to the people of central Surrey. It is co-owned and run by the nursing and therapy teams it employs. They combine the values and principles of the NHS with the 'can do' culture of a successfully run business.
Find out more www.centralsurreyhealth.nhs.uk
Examples of innovation in our region
Examples of innovation are too numerous to cover but below is a selection of our work that will be showcased in seminars during the Health Innovation EXPO 2011.
Spreading best practice within orthopaedic surgery
Hugh Apthorp, Consultant Orthopaedic SurgeonEast Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust
This project aims to spread best practice for patients that require a hip replacement operation. Dr Hugh Apthorp has the shortest length of stay nationally (2.7 days) for patients that have a hip operation.
This particular project has been funded by the regional innovation fund as an example of best practice that we want to spread across the region.
This work will also be supported by the development of an effective musculoskeletal network across the region which would also facilitate improvements in other areas e.g. fractured neck or femur.
Estimations are that adoption of best practice across the region would result in a reduction of 13,017 bed days and an associated saving of £3.5 million per annum, and most importantly patients are able to receive treatment and be back at home the day following surgery.
Hugh’s work has achieved national recognition and is often used as a case study of good practice for example the Department of Health has recently produced a promotional film; which has been included in the Establishing the Evidence national library.
Reducing caesarean-section rates
Tony Kelly, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Current caesarean-section rates across the region vary between 22-31%. This results in an approximate cost of £30.5 million per annum. A reduction in inappropriate caesarean-sections of 23% would attract savings of £2.3 million per annum.
This project aims to reduce caesarean-section rates across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. An early success of this project is achieving sign up from all maternity units in the region to the establishment of a web-based database. This will enable clinical details of each delivery to be recorded and each caesarean-section to be categorised into 1 of 12 subgroups.
Local opinion leaders will be developed and a network of health professionals will be established to review the data regularly and share experience and best practice underway within each unit to reduce the rate of caesareans. This proposal builds on the toolkit developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement which assists maternity units in achieving low caesarean-section rates while maintaining safe outcomes for mothers and babies.
The benefits of a natural birth (where clinically possible) includes less trauma for both mother and baby and it also enhances bonding.
Enhancing telemedicine and access to acute care
Bill Kilvington, Divisional ManagerQueen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
This project, which has been developed in partnership with South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust, involves updating the telemedicine system at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to a web-based system (improving remote access for authorised users). It will equip paramedic practitioners with cameras and laptop computers to allow them to send images directly to the Trust. Patients will experience rapid specialist assessment and care as a result of the project. Once rolled out, this approach could be applied to other specialist services. Supporting this project will further enhance Queen Victoria Hospital’s lead role in telemedicine, and the roll out of the paramedic practitioner. It is estimated that as a result of the improvements 300 less patients a year will require treatment at A&E. This is a saving of approx £24K. It also estimates that it would result in 600 fewer ambulance journeys which equates to a saving of approximately £55K.
Contact us
peter.houghton@southeastcoast.nhs.uk
Tel: 01293 789411
Rob Berry, Head of Innovation
robert.berry@southeastcoast.nhs.uk
Tel: 01293 789435
Visit www.southeastcoast.nhs.uk
Our partners
Our recently formed Partnership for Innovation in Health brings together representatives from healthcare, academia and industry. Similarly our Regional Health Research Coordinating Group brings together the same sectors with the addition of health research charity.
We have recently worked with the Technology Strategy Board to deliver two Small Business Research Initiatives. The first to identify novel products or services to support people with dementia and their carers, the second to improve diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of people at risk or who have had a stroke.
We also work with individual organisations to develop relationships with the NHS and to facilitate a better understanding of our challenges in delivering ever improving healthcare for our population. Below are some of the organisations that we are currently working with:
University of Surrey
Surrey Research Centre
University of Kent
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Sussex innovation Centre (SinC)
South East Health Technology Alliance
GlaxoSmithKline
Pfizer
Novartis
VitalPAC
Participation in the EXPO
We are delighted to be show casing our video case study at the NHS Innovations Expo 2009.
Visitor Information
ExCeL London is an international exhibition and convention centre, located in the heart of London's Royal Docks, within easy reach of central London.
The venue is part of a 100 acre campus, including 3 onsite DLR stations, easy access to the Jubilee Line and London City Airport, parking, on-site hotels and numerous on-site bars and restaurants.
Click here to find out more about the venue, travel and accommodation
