Northerners in the Netherlands: how our alliance members have been making impacts at HLTH Europe
How health colleagues in the North are creating a voice for the North of England in Amsterdam
This week, Team North has been out in force at HLTH Europe in Amsterdam; all with a common purpose – to find opportunities for collaborative working to improve healthcare in our regions.
The NHSA opened proceedings as a HLTH Partner with our panel event on Monday, featuring insights and advice for innovators on how to connect with NHS trusts for trials, evaluation and procurement. We also discussed some exemplars of successful innovation development, such as the Head Up collar for Motor Neurone Disease patients, Leeds’s use of interactive 3D holograms to support surgery and little journey supporting children with personalised care.
Across the week we’ve seen northern leaders showcasing the breadth and depth of expertise in our region, where our ecosystem is working at the cutting edge to tackle the hardest challenges facing the healthcare systems globally.
Jim Ritchie, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Greater Manchester ICB, spoke about ‘achieving the CIO dream’. Jim spoke about how health providers need to turn digital health into a truly enabling function that responds to clinicians and the changing marketplace. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is also featured in the Provider Spotlight pavilion, showcasing its Innovative technology adoption programme, as well as expertise at commercialisation within the Trust and at the Health Technology Research Centre in Emergency and Acute care.
Our alliance member Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) partnered with Antwerp University Hospital and NHS trusts in Wales, to deliver ‘provider spotlights’. Paul Jones, Chief Digital Information Officer at LTHT, spoke about the Trust’s approaches to R&I to drive cutting-edge innovation. Examples included AI in radiology in Leeds, as well as 3D printing for bone replacement. Paul explained how virtual reality headsets are being used to show patients their brain scans to help them understand the scans and explain what brain surgery could potentially do for them.
Richard Stubbs, CEO of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, has taken part in various stage events, including how the NHS is adopting artificial intelligence to help transform care and development of new therapies. Richard also spoke on a panel of equality champions from across the globe about the importance of inclusion in health research. He shared how 19.3% of NHS staff identify as being black or minority ethnic, and that if we don’t ensure these people can access the innovation pipeline, the NHS is turning its back on a fifth of their innovation opportunities.
Professor Iain Hennessey, Consultant Paediatric and Neonatal Surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, spoke at a panel event around the biggest healthcare risks facing children, setting out how parents can be supported by healthcare providers to help face modern challenges and ensure their children’s physical and mental health is futureproofed.
Professor Hennessey quoted our Child of the North report, speaking about how child poverty rates are 7% higher in Liverpool than the national average. It’s estimated that it costs parents £36 to visit the hospital for their child’s appointment when you take into account food, lost earnings and travel costs. Putting that in perspective, families in poverty in Liverpool have around £40 a week to feed their children and this created a barrier for patients and their families.
Alder Hey’s team developed an AI tool to identify families at risk of missing appointments due to this, so that the Trust could reach out to them to ensure they had the right support to attend appointments.
Professor Hennessey also advocated for lifting the two-child cap to improve child health opportunities in Liverpool – a key component of our own Health Equity North priorities. This is a great message to send in such an important space, and is also a message underpinned by the Trust’s #PutChildrenFirst campaign. It’s clear that addressing child poverty is absolutely crucial in discussions about paediatric care.
On the show floor, as part of ‘Team Liverpool’, delegates from Liverpool Health Partners (LHP), NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, The Walton Centre, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have been featured in the provider spotlight pavilion in recognition of their international excellence in research and innovation. The team are meeting with health innovators from across the globe, promoting the pioneering work being done across the Liverpool region, offering a fantastic opportunity for networking and collaboration. The NHSA has provided a delegation for the Liverpool Health Partners team, a fantastic opportunity for collaborative working and networking.
Lastly, to round out the northern HLTH takeover we have the North of England Stand – led by the combined Mayoral Authority teams from West Yorkshire, Invest Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, North East Combined Authority and York and North Yorkshire – a supergroup of northern authorities working collectively to drive investment and create opportunities to achieve our ambition of a great North.
West Yorkshire have also brought a delegation that includes Health Innovation Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, NIHR HealthTech Research Centre, NEXUS at the University of Leeds, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Beckett University. Delegates can go along to find out more about what the North has to offer.
It is a true pleasure to see such strong and passionate representation from the North of England. One of the themes at HLTH this year is growth, and the North has growth in spates – in our growing economy, our research capability, and in our increasingly connected ecosystem.
I’m excited to see what the future holds and where we can go from here, what new opportunities have been created and ultimately – how we can better serve the 16 million citizens who make the North great.
