NHS South Central - Welcome to our region

 

 

There are 24 NHS organisations across the South Central region that provide healthcare to around four million people across 10,000 sq km – four times the size of Luxembourg.  

There are nine PCTs that operate across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Read more

To view a map of the NHS South Central region click here

South Central Strategic Health Authority

South Central Strategic Health Authority (SCSHA) is one of ten Strategic Health Authorities across the country.  Its main responsibilities are to:

• Provide strategic leadership to the local NHS, ensuring national policy is implemented at a local level.

• Lead on organisational and workforce development, ensuring organisations are fit for purpose and that the local NHS has a workforce that will meet the future healthcare needs of the population.

• Performance manage local trusts to ensure local systems operate effectively and deliver improved performance and value for money.

• Promote innovation throughout the region – this is now a legal duty.

The SHA holds PCTs and Trusts to account for their performance against key targets and in turn SHAs are held to account by the Department of Health to ensure the local NHS is implementing government health policy.

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Our vision

Over the past 18 months, we have been working on behalf of the population served by the SHA to further develop and begin the implementation of our vision. This vision was developed through collaboration with local people who actively engaged the ‘Next Stage Review’. The vision has been captured in our publication ‘Towards a Healthier Future’.  

Clinical leadership will be key to delivery of the vision and the following eight clinical programmes are crucial new structures:

• Staying Healthy
• Maternity and Newborn
• Children and Young People
• Long-term Conditions
• Acute Care
• Planned Care
• Mental Health
• End-of-life Care.

The purpose of these programmes is to ensure that local people have access to the best possible care for years to come.

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Innovation and Improvement

Promoting innovation and continuous improvement is a core role and statutory duty for the SHA, as it supports service development and transformation across all sectors of the health system and develops partnerships with others to ensure that care provision is optimised.

The SHA has four main roles with respect to innovation and improvement:

1.    Supporting Invention
2.    Supporting the Adoption of new approaches from outside the NHS
3.    Supporting the Diffusion of good ideas from within the NHS
4.    Supporting the NHS in building its capability and capacity to be innovative and to deliver continuous improvement.

In doing this, the eight clinical programmes ensure the right focus for the SHA and provide clinical leadership for change.

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Examples of our innovation

Newborn children hearing assessment – Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust team have developed a model where newborn hearing screening is carried out at home by Health Visitors with a coverage of > 99.6% and low referral rate of < 1 %. This is a multi-disciplinary, family focused service in partnership with voluntary and educational services, social services and other clinicians. It is very highly regarded by parents and other professionals.
Read more

Digipen solution for community midwives – Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
This scheme involves midwives using a digital pen that allows them to collect handwritten information across multiple users, sites and locations. The pen is used in conjunction with a Blackberry which provides secure over the air automation and updating of health records remotely to create contemporaneous notes allowing a ‘one time’ entry of data to the care record. Full data encryption meets information goveranance requirements.
Read more

Nurse-led dementia service – Hampshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
This pioneering project will develop, deliver and evaluate a nurse-led, recovery focussed service for people with dementia, in an in-patient unit at the Becton Centre in the New Forest. This is the first such project locally to test a hypothesis that a recovery approach is applicable for people with dementia. Dementia care and the improved quality and productivity in this area are key pieces of the Mental Health programme.
Read more

Tele-dermatolgy pilot – NHS Hampshire
Tele-dermatology is proving to be an excellent means of fast-tracking serious dermatological cases to secondary care at a lower cost.
Read more

Disease containment zones – Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust
The innovation relates to evaluating the control and prevention of transmission of MRSA, TB and C. Diff., utilising technology which produces disease containment zones. The system works by generating a sterile air curtain around a patient’s bed to form a ‘safe’ environment. The simplicity of the system and ease of installation means that it can be retro-fitted in a wide range of clinical environments.
Read more

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for insomnia in chronic pain sufferers – Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Trust
The project will pilot a six week Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) programme for people with chronic pain and sleep problems. CBT has been shown to be an effective treatment for insomnia and chronic pain independently. The project will be based upon work carried out by Professor Colin Espie at the Glasgow Sleep Centre in relation to overcoming insomnia and sleep problems.
Read more

Unified DNACPR strategy – South Central Strategic Health Authority
NHS South Central have been developing a unified Do Not Attempt Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) strategy over the last year. It has approval from all nine Acute Trusts, and all nine PCTs in South Central. This will be the first time a policy has been agreed across all sectors and settings including care homes and the third sector.
Read more

Acute Life-Threatening Events Recognition Treatment – Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
The ALERT® course was developed in response to research showing that some in-hospital cardiac arrests, admissions to critical care units and even deaths might be avoidable if certain ‘warning signs’ are recognised and treated sufficiently quickly.
Read more

Patient Information Record system – Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust
The Patient Information Record is one hospital’s response to the problems involved in obtaining (and retaining) important patient information, safely and efficiently.
Read more

Tracking patients with dementia – Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Around 700,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia and it is predicted that this will rise to over a million by 2025. It is estimated that up to 60% of dementia-patients ‘wander’ – and that around 40% have got lost as a result, causing distress to themselves and their families.
Subsequently, around 25% of these patients are locked into their houses by worried relatives – a response which may be understandable but is neither desirable nor sustainable.
Read more

VitalPAC – Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Recognising acutely-ill hospital patients and then successfully caring for them is one of the most significant challenges in modern healthcare. Each year, it is estimated that approximately 40,000 hospital inpatients die, 23,000 suffer cardiac arrests and 20,000 are admitted to Intensive Care Units. VitalPAC™ is an electronic, wireless point-of-care system that uses PDAs and other mobile devices to monitor vital signs and record observations, thereby improving the quality of care and, consequently, patient safety.
Read more 

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Contact us

Duncan Goodes
Head of Innovation Promotion
NHS South Central
South Central Strategic Health Authority

Tel: 01635 275527
Email: duncan.goodes@southcentral.nhs.uk


Karen Blunden
Innovation Manager
NHS South Central
South Central Strategic Health Authority

Tel: 01635 275536
Email: karen.blunden@southcentral.nhs.uk

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Our partners

Portsmouth City Teaching PCT's Public Health & Well-being team
Portsmouth City Council's Health Improvement Team