Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust shortlisted for two prestigious HSJ Patient Safety Awards

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH) is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for two HSJ Patient Safety Awards which recognises safety, culture and positive experience in patient care, celebrating its worthy finalists on a national scale.

The HSJ Patient Safety Awards acknowledges the hard-working teams and individuals across the UK who are continually striving to deliver improved patient care.

CLCH’s Brent Health Matters team and the Post-covid Service in the Tri-borough (Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham) made the shortlist in the following categories:

•             Improving Medicines Safety Award – Improving the use of medications through specialist health inequalities pharmacists

•            Improving Health Outcomes for Minority Ethnic Communities Award - Post Covid Animation Project – Tri-borough.

“Improving the use of medications through specialist health inequalities pharmacists” nomination by our Brent Health Matters pharmacists highlights the key impact pharmacists have made to reduce health inequalities in Brent.

By engaging with patients who deemed “hard to serve”, either through non-engagement or other reasons, the team builds a rapport and tailors healthcare to individual needs via a holistic approach. They provide domiciliary, structured medication reviews, medicines reconciliation and medicines support services to patients - empowering them to take charge of their health.

There are huge cost-savings attributed to the work that the team do. For example, stopping unnecessary medications, prescribing more cost-effective medications, and informing GP practices of major non-adherence, as well as hospital admission avoidance all contributes to NHS cost-savings and an enhanced quality of life for our patients.

Additional benefits of this programme include targeting the most deprived areas of Brent through community outreach events, enabling better access to services. These outreach events allow members of the community to drop in and have their blood pressure, blood glucose, BMI and diabetes risk measured. After the tests, a consultation with a senior clinician is offered to discuss further, and a follow up home visit if a structured medicine review is required.

Nilam Kalyan, Specialist Health Inequalities Pharmacist - Brent Health Matters, said: “Our goal is to reduce health inequalities, bridging the gap between healthcare professionals, social care and the public. We strive to build relationships with patients who do not engage with healthcare services to improve access to services.”

Meanwhile, CLCH’s Post Covid Service in Tri-borough has been shortlisted for their Post Covid Animation Project. The project helps to tackle health inequalities in accessing services for Post Covid patients across the Tri-borough area.

The team worked collaboratively with various organisations, GPs and charities to gain an insight into the barriers in access services among those living in the most deprived areas. Key barriers identified were that members of the community were not able to understand what Long Covid was due to language barriers.

To tackle this, the team developed an animation video that was accessible for all audiences across multiple languages and abilities. Using visual storytelling, the video includes useful information on Long Covid, associated symptoms, and how to get help and support. Services saw an increase in the referral numbers to access the service by 50% in six months since the launch of the video.

Manka Patel, Northwest London Post Covid Service Manager, said: “All audiences across multiple languages, cultures and abilities were considered in the development of this project to ensure that this meets the needs for as many different communities and circumstances as possible. I am very proud of the team for the work they continue to do to reduce the health inequalities and improve access further in the communities we serve.”

The full list of finalists for the 2024 HSJ Patient Safety Awards can be found at https://awards.patientsafetycongress.co.uk/shortlist-2024. Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony on 16 September 2024.