Four innovation projects shortlisted for BMJ awards

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted for four BMJ Awards, the most received by one Trust in this year’s awards. The British Medical Journal Awards promote excellence in healthcare and recognise the inspirational work of healthcare teams across the country. The winners will be announced on 22^nd April 2020 in London.

“We are delighted to be shortlisted in four categories in the prestigious BMJ Awards this year,” said Lesley Watts, Chief Executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

“I am incredibly proud of our hardworking staff who are passionate about delivering exceptional patient care. We are constantly looking for new ways to harness creative ideas from staff, through our Improvement programme and CW Innovation. We are so pleased that our staff have been recognised.”

In partnership with its charity CW+, the Trust launched ‘CW Innovation’ last year which is a programme to identify and test new healthcare innovations and approaches in a real-world setting. Chris Chaney, Chief Executive of CW+ and Co-Lead of CW Innovation says, “We are so pleased that some of the programme’s projects have been recognised in these awards and that the ground-breaking work of our staff has the potential to be scaled and replicated across the NHS.”

Dermatology Team category: Tele-dermatology Cancer Clinic

Rising numbers of two-week-wait (2WW) skin cancer referrals have caused increasing pressure on UK Dermatology departments. The innovative tele-dermatology Cancer Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was established to address this problem and is the only service of its kind in the UK. The service has received high patient satisfaction feedback, with patients saying they would recommend the service, felt confident with the innovative care model, and would be happy to complete electronic questionnaires and receive results electronically.

Digital Innovation Team category: Digital Postnatal Suite

The innovative digital postnatal discharge system, powered by Lumeon Technology, digitises the patient pathway on the postnatal ward allowing multi-disciplinary team members to quickly see what they need to do next, which has minimised delays for new mums leaving hospital, so they can go home with their babies faster.

Stroke and Cardiovascular Team category: Improving Chest Pain Care & A Disruptive Collaboration

• These two shortlists recognise the transformative work of our multi-impact, disruptive collaboration between the Acute Medical Unit (AMU) and cardiology, which has resulted in:
• A newly developed ‘HOT’ clinic that innovatively allows discharge of risk stratified patients with cardiac chest pain for early review in a dedicated clinic by a cardiology consultant, supported by acute medicine
• A structured algorithm with which to approach the prescription of cardiology drugs

• Improved patient care and experience as patients are seen quicker and better anti-anginal decision making in AMU means their symptoms are targeted more quickly and effectively reducing readmissions. Patients also feel they have more control over their conditions, and liaise with cardiology more through the recently introduced Care Information Exchange app.

Notes to editors

About CW Innovation

The CW Innovation programme, led by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and its charity CW+, aims to identify and deliver high-impact innovation initiatives and improvements that support the goal of delivering exceptional patient care and experience, and address some of the real-time challenges that healthcare organisations face today.

Together, the Trust and the charity have been working to develop a proactive and open environment for the introduction and evaluation of the latest clinical and digital innovations. By building on our existing portfolio of innovation projects and our growing reputation in this field—we are a Global Digital Exemplar and a founding partner of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator—we are looking to significantly expand our programme of work as CW Innovation. 

About Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Trust manages Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, West Middlesex University Hospital and a number of community sexual health and HIV services across London. It employs over 6,000 staff who care for nearly one million people. The Trust provides a range of specialist clinical services as well as general hospital services for people living locally, which include A&E and maternity at both hospital sites:

• One of the top ranked and top performing hospital trusts in the UK
• One of the largest A&E providers in the UK, treating over 325,000 patients each year
• One of the largest providers of women and children’s care in the country, delivering over 10,000 babies every year
• Home to many specialist programmes including a Burns Service, which is the leading centre for London and the South East, and an internationally-recognised HIV and sexual health service which has been at the forefront of the global fight against HIV/AIDS for the past 30 years

About CW+

CW+ is the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust including its hospitals and clinics. Our generous supporters and partners enable us to:

• Build and enhance clinical facilities to create an outstanding healing environment for patients and staff
• Deliver a unique art and design programme to transform the experience and wellbeing of our patients
• Invest in health innovation to deliver exceptional patient care

CWPLUS Registered Charity n°1169897