‘Improving Vascular Services in South East Hampshire‘ – Finalists in the HSJ Value Awards 2020 category
for Specialist Service Redesign Initiative.
HSJ Value Awards 2020 Certificate
In 2013 shortly after the Wessex Clinical Senate was set up, it was asked by the Director of Specialised Commissioning to review plans to change the way vascular surgery was delivered in South East Hampshire.
Vascular surgery in South East Hampshire is undertaken at University Hospital Southampton and Portsmouth Hospitals Trust. The hospitals are 20 miles apart, they are a similar size, and both have a history of providing specialised services. Because of the need to have a comprehensive rota of vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists, NHS England (NHSE) asked Wessex Clinical Senate Council for advice. Following the Clinical Senate’s recommendations, the stakeholders worked together to implement the changes.
As a result of this successful implementation the impact on patient mortality now that the change has been safely managed is considerable. One of the key factors in the success of this project was that there was consistency of involvement with most parties, including the full-time project manager seeing it through from start to finish.
As well as the consistency, the frequency of the vascular implementation board meetings and the seniority of those sponsoring and chairing it enabled the project to proceed at pace.
A key tenet of the Wessex Clinical Senate Council’s recommendations was for clinicians across Portsmouth and Hampshire to start to work together across sites in a network model. This model has since become common currency in vascular services.
You can watch find out more about the ‘Specialist Service Redesign Initiative’ in this film:
