A new community of health and care innovation pioneers launches to drive better health outcomes for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire

10 May 2024

An update from the Innovate Healthier Together Programme.

On Wednesday 1 May, we hosted an event to mark the official launch of our Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship, hosted by the Chair of Health Innovation West of England and Vice-Chancellor of UWE, Professor Sir Steve West CBE. Colleagues from across Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire gathered at the stunning The Mount Without event venue in central Bristol.

The Innovate Healthier Together Fellowship aims to provide a community and a space to spark innovative thinking and new ways of working across health and care services in Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire.

To launch this important initiative, we were joined by 121 professionals with a diverse mix of skills from across all health and care sectors. Those in attendance were asked to contribute to how the fellowship should run, priority themes for collaboration, and what support they could pledge.

Prior to the fellowship launch, we approached key individuals who are already taking incredible steps in progressing innovative practices in our health and care system, inviting them to join the community as our Founding Fellows.

During our launch event, attendees heard from Founding Fellows including Huda Hujinur, Rebecca Thorpe, Marc Griffiths and Rhys Hancock. Each fellow shared their examples of their own innovative work, alongside their commitment to the fellowship.

Huda Hujinur of Caafi Health, inspired our audience with her progressive work specifically supporting underrepresented communities and marginalised groups. Marc Griffiths of University of the West of England touched on the continued development of the Integrated Care Academy at the University of the West of England and its collaboration with partners across the local and regional systems.

Rhys Hancock of Brisdoc shared information on the Mental Health Integrated Access Partnership. Rebecca Thorpe of University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) talked about her experience of SHarED (Supporting High impact users in Emergency Departments) and the support she received through collaboration with Health Innovation West of England to spread the project across the region.

These videos can be viewed below:

Each founding fellow is spearheading innovation that covers the breadth and depth of our integrated health and care system.

Following these inspiring insights, event attendees participated in an ‘innovation conversation’ in which they discussed the approaches that have impressed them in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, potential barriers to overcome and ways to accelerate innovation in health and care.

These discussions were recorded, and we look forward to incorporating these learnings into the growth and direction of the fellowship as we provide the spaces and platforms for fellows to reimagine how we deliver health and care services to our local population.

Following the success of the launch event, Professor Sir Steve West CBE, commented:

“The Fellowship gives us the opportunity to do things differently. We now have the chance to create a community that will support each other, be brave enough to innovate, to test, fail, and learn from that. In the end, it’s about doing things better. This Fellowship is a group of people that can start us off on that great journey.”

We are encouraging all forward thinkers to join our new community space, allowing health and care professionals to think creatively, be inspired, and make connections. Register for the new fellowship here.