22 December 2009
New bodies which combine the expertise of industry, healthcare and education have been formed to promote innovation in the NHS.
Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs) are cross sector partnerships between the NHS, the higher education sector and corporate partners. They will work together to provide professional education and training to a wide range of clinical professionals.
The East Midlands bid for £600,000 funding is one of 17 successful bids nationally which will share £11 million in the first year to establish a HIEC. By co-ordinating clinical education across different healthcare settings, HIECs will enable traditional barriers between organisations and professions to be overcome. This alignment of training providers will ensure that better trained clinicians will be able to speed up the adoption of new innovations on the front line of patient care.
The East Midlands bid was co-ordinated by the University of Leicester on behalf of a membership of organisations from throughout the East Midlands, including NHS Trusts, community services, higher education institutions, private sector organisations and Skills for Health and Skills for Care, who provide and support education in health and social care. The bid brought together a huge amount of concerted work by all of the members to establish links and partnerships which will remove historic barriers and promote co-ordinated working across the membership.
Professor Stewart Petersen, Head of Medical Education at the University of Leicester said: "We are delighted that the East Midlands bid for a Health Innovation & Education Cluster, has been successful. We look forward to working with a wide range of partners from the NHS, Higher Education and other organisations to facilitate rapid, research led improvements in the quality of services for NHS patients across the region.”
Explaining how the new initiative will help make a difference in the community, Professor Petersen said: "We will focus on specific projects to improve health outcomes for patients. For example, we may bring together experts from research, the NHS, education and management rapidly to address ways, through the provision of focussed services in the community, of reducing the number of elderly people who need treatment in the emergency department because of falls."
