Health Innovation West Midlands (HIWM), formerly known as the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN) is delighted to announce that the West Midlands Managing Deterioration in Care Homes Safety Improvement Programme has been highly commended in the Provider Collaboration of the Year category at the 2023 HSJ Awards – the annual initiative which provides a platform to share success stories across the health and social care sector, as well as helping to shape the future of the NHS.

The HSJ Awards took place on November 16th, at Evolution London. It is undoubtedly the most esteemed accolade of healthcare excellence in the UK – and this year was no exception. A record-breaking 1456 entries were received, with 223 organisations, projects and individuals making it to the final shortlist, following two rounds of rigorous judging. All finalists and winners were assessed against five clear criteria; ambition; outcome; spread; value and involvement.

The West Midlands Managing Deterioration in Care Homes Safety Improvement Programme worked with 1,679 care homes across the region to support the training, adoption and sustainability of deterioration management tools. It aimed to reduce deterioration-associated harm by improving the prevention, identification, escalation, and response to physical deterioration through better system coordination.

HIWM has worked with a multitude of system partners including but not limited to:

  • The six Integrated Care Systems (Birmingham & Solihull, Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent) across the West Midlands;
  • NHS England;
  • NHSE Midlands;
  • Primary Care;
  • Community Care;
  • West Midlands Learning Disability & Autism Self-Advocacy Network;
  • West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services; and
  • Care homes

This collaboration affected whole systems transformations to support deterioration in our most vulnerable group at earlier stages. Our work has seen significant reduction in avoidable ambulance conveyances and hospital admissions, while fostering a collaborative approach across multiple systems and pathways.

A national report by Unity Insights relating to West Midlands data found significant reductions in acute escalation for care homes, from the baseline year of 2019 (pre-covid-19) to 2022; where there were 2,236 fewer 999 calls; 3,232 fewer emergency admissions, and 34,900 fewer bed days within the WM, a non-cost saving benefit of just over £8.4 million.

This piece of work has been recognised as a national exemplar, and HIWM is continuing to support NHS England by establishing a national change package in line with the deterioration framework.

Daniel Hodgkiss, Managing Deterioration Programme Manager at HIWM comments, “This programme has highlighted the power of true integrated care to achieve positive health and care outcomes.

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank the 1679 care homes and our system partners for collaborating with us on this programme. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the challenging few years that the care home sector has faced, but despite this, it has showed the commitment in improving the management of care of their residents, upskilling the workforce to improve recognition of deterioration at earlier stages, and the resilience of staff to ensure the resident remains central to the whole deterioration pathway.”

Editor of the Health Service Journal, Alastair McLellan adds;

“I feel very proud that our awards programme provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the healthcare workforce across the UK, gaining national recognition for hard work and success stories.

“So, huge congratulations to Health Innovation West Midlands and partners and welcome to the HSJ Awards alumni.”.

The full list of Winners and those Highly Commended for the 2023 HSJ Awards Awards can be found at awards.hsj.co.uk/winners-2023.