NHS London - Welcome to our region

NHS London - Welcome to our region

NHS London is the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) for the whole of the Greater London area. That means we provide strategic leadership for the capital's healthcare and make sure the £13 billion annual investment in staff and services delivers the best possible care and support for the public and patients.

NHS London has overall responsibility for the performance of 31 primary care trusts (PCTs), 21 acute trusts, three mental health trusts and the London Ambulance Service. A further 15 trusts in London are foundation trusts and regulated by Monitor.

Innovation in the capital

The NHS in London benefits from the services of world class healthcare experts and enjoys a deserved reputation as an environment in which growth and the development of creativity and innovation are nurtured. Always at the cutting edge of new ideas and developments, it is no surprise that London is leading the way in healthcare innovation.

Below are examples of some of the main ways NHS London is supporting innovation across the capital - the Regional Innovation Fund, Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs) and Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs).

The NHS in London is also supported by NHS Innovations London, an organisation dedicated to help fast-track NHS innovations to market; help commercial and public organisations innovate more effectively; and enable industry and healthcare providers to better understand the market they seek to serve

As demonstrated here, innovation in the NHS is pervasive and not limited to a particular sector or level.

Regional Innovation Fund projects

The Department of Health gave each strategic health authority a £1.94 million Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) for 2009/10. NHS London launched its first fund for the capital in November 2009.

The aim of the RIF is to support innovation, meaning that existing resources will not be diverted from patient care. The RIF will be the catalyst to support, incentivise and reward innovative work that has the potential to transform services in the whole region. NHS London targeted the fund at some of the main challenges the capital faces in delivering the vision of better and more local healthcare.

For the first application round 133 applications were received, 42 of which were shortlisted. Seventeen projects were successful in securing funding awards. These projects cross various pathways, sectors and timescales (from six to 18 months duration).

Academic Health Science Centres

London has three Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs), vibrant partnerships between top medical schools and NHS organisations focusing on innovation.
By bringing healthcare services, research and education together under a single leadership, they allow cutting-edge medical discoveries to be quickly translated into new techniques and introduced faster into London's hospitals.

AHSC status has been awarded to just five partnerships in the UK who have demonstrated international excellence in biomedical research, education and patient care, including three in London: Imperial College, King's Health Partners and UCL Partners.

Health Innovation and Education Clusters

HIECs are partnerships between NHS organisations, leading education institutes, industry and academia, whose purpose is to promote innovation, quality and productivity in the NHS through training & education and the sharing of best practice across the region. Projects are being developed across many clinical and disease areas. This work includes the identification and evaluation of new models of delivering care closer to home, empowering people to manage their own health.

Three out of 17 HIECS in England are based in London; North East London, North Central London and Essex HIEC, North West London HIEC and the South London HIEC

For more information visit www.london.nhs.uk

NHS Innovations London - from healthcare inspiration to business generation

CARDIOLOGY, NHS Innovations London has managed the development a number of minimally invasive products that will facilitate the rapid treatment and recovery from heart attacks and other conditions including the repair of aneurysms and hole in the heart, treatment of angina and the replacement of heart valves. Several of these products are entering clinical trials and have market values of £20 million to £600 million.

THERAPEUTICS, Organ or tissue transplantation between genetically non-identical humans is usually fraught with clinical complications arising from immunological rejection.  NHS Innovations London has funded the development of a novel therapeutic that aims to reduce/obviate the need for immunosuppression by inducing immunological tolerance specific to the donor organ/tissue. This novel therapeutic has the potential to be developed into a platform therapy for bone marrow, placental cell (childhood leukemia) and stem cell transplants as well as a potential treatment of autoimmune diseases.

For more information visit www.nhsinnovationslondon.com

Contact us

Johanna Ejbye, Innovation Manager, NHS London: 020 7932 3850 / Johanna.ejbye@london.nhs.uk