Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ innovative children and young person’s service is in line for a top award.
The Children and Young Persons’ Ambulatory Care Experience (ACE) project, based at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, aims to bring care to young patients in the comfort of their own home and prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.
Today, it was announced that the pioneering project has been shortlisted in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards, which recognise excellence in healthcare.
ACE, which was launched on December 4, 2017 has been shortlisted in the ‘Improvement in Emergency and Urgent Care’ category, and team members have now been invited to give a presentation to judges in London on October 10 before the winner is announced in November.
The service involves an experienced community nurse team treating children aged from 0 to 16 years-old in the comfort of their own home, under the expert eye of the hospital’s consultant paediatricians, through the use of regular telephone clinical huddles.
The service is funded by the local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) with the senior commissioners being David Tatham, Clinical Lead for Urgent and Emergency Care, Louise Atherton and Rashmi Sudhir.
The ACE team is adding new pathways all the time. The service began with the successful ‘wheezy child’ pathway and this was followed by the gastroenteritis and croup pathways in May and July. The team now plans to add the bronchiolitis and neonatal jaundice pathways to the service in the next couple of months.
Consultant Paediatrician and Lead for Children’s Ambulatory Care, Mathew Mathai said: “The ACE scheme delivers a more efficient service to our patients as it reduces emergency admissions and readmissions to our hospitals, empowers families to manage common medical problems better and enhances our collaborative working with our CCG and GP colleagues across the district.
“I’m really proud of the achievement of the ACE team over the last nine months. It has truly been a team effort and I have had the great privilege of working with an amazing team of nurses, doctors, educators, pharmacists, managers, clerical staff and commissioners that have all helped to drive this development forward.
“ACE has also been a springboard to bridging other gaps between home, community and hospital care. We are now at an exciting stage in the project. We have proved that the ACE model works and we are adding new pathways all the time. The HSJ shortlisting has come at just the right time and will help to promote our work to a wider audience.”
Denise Stewart, Project Manager (ACE Service) said: “It’s an amazing achievement to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award; I am so proud to be part of it.
“I would personally like to thank everyone in the Trust for all their support over the last year. There is still a lot to do but the HSJ shortlist will be a real boost for the team as they hit their first full winter.”
A spokesperson for the HSJ said: “2018 has seen a staggering increase in entries from all over the NHS and wider healthcare industry, so to be shortlisted is a fantastic achievement. Congratulations.”
Read more about the ACE service here.