Chelsea and Westminster Hospital launches innovation programme

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has launched a brand new innovation programme in a bid to design, attract, embed and evaluate new initiatives and technologies.

The CW Innovation programme, which is being led by the trust and its charity, CW+, aims to deliver a portfolio of evaluated, real-world projects by connecting frontline clinical and operational staff with partner organisations.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and CW+ have been developing a pipeline of ‘test and scale’ innovation projects to be rolled out across the trust and disseminated throughout the NHS stakeholder network.

Examples include the UK’s largest study of wearable monitoring technology, the UK’s first cancer clinic of its kind fast tracking patients with clinical suspicions of cancer, and the Mum & Baby app that’s now being rolled out across the North West London catchment and to other national NHS maternity centres.

Speaking at the launch event was Lord O’Shaughnessy, who served as parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care before he stepped down in December 2018.

As he was stepping in for the health secretary, O’Shaughnessy told the audience that he would do his “best Matt Hancock impression”.

Calling the innovation programme “incredibly exciting”, O’Shaughnessy added that it represented a “huge leap forward” and would have a “profound impact nationwide”.

“I think it is completely right that it should be happening here at Chelsea and Westminster”, he added.

Chelsea and Westminster is one of the acute Global Digital Exemplars (GDEs), a programme which focuses on creating sites of digital excellence.

According to the trust, CW Innovation marks a new phase of its commitment to design, attract, embed and evaluate new initiatives and technologies to transform operational efficiency and, critically, patient care and patient experience.

Lesley Watts, chief executive of the trust, added: “CW Innovation is designed to connect the frontline clinical and operational staff and partner organisations, both in and outside of the NHS. We strongly believe it will lead to improvements in the care we provide to our patients and the way we run our hospitals.

“With over 70 projects in our pipeline, an increasing number of external partners and a growing innovation team, we are excited to officially launch CW Innovation.”

READ MORE:

• Chelsea and Westminster to pilot wireless environmental sensors in ICU
• Digital guide for ‘pregnancy, birth and beyond’ launched for parents
• Wave 2 of NHS Test Beds takes aim at diabetes and A&E admissions
• Chelsea and Westminster plans post EPR