Four organisations from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex were honoured for their work at the KSS Respiratory Collaborative Quality Improvement Awards 2021.

Delivered by KSS AHSN’s Respiratory team, the awards recognise Quality Improvement initiatives in the field of respiratory.

Applications were invited for community based, primary care based, acute based and integrated care submissions on COVID or non-COVID topics.

The winning teams were presented, virtually, with their award by Peter Carpenter, KSS AHSN’s Service Delivery Director, at the KSS Respiratory Virtual Collaborative on June 29.

“As today’s winners have shown, there’s a variety of great work taking place across the region, driving patient safety standards and quality of care both in relation to the challenges presented by COVID-19, and wider work,” he said.

“Our Respiratory Collaborative Event is a key point in the year to come together and share and deepen our collective learnings, as well as recognising some of the amazing work taking place through these awards.

“As well as congratulating the award recipients, I’d like to thank everyone across the system for their continued hard work and commitment over the past year.”

The winners were:

NHS Kent & Medway Clinical Commissioning Group, who commissioned a Covid Oximetry@Home service across the Kent and Medway ICSs. Starting in November 2020, all ICP/PCNs had fully functioning primary care-led CO@Home services in place, covering 8-8, 7 days per week by end of December 2020.

Frimley Park Hospital, for its work in developing an approach that integrated a wide source of individual patient information into a structured template for ward round sheets, enabling review and comparison of patient data, which helped to optimise continuity of care and enabled clear, concise handover.

Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust, who implemented of a multidisciplinary team follow up clinic for patients admitted to Intensive care with Covid-19 (first wave) at three months post discharge from hospital, providing provide patients with a “one stop shop” so that they could see all the specialists in one appointment

Additionally First Community Health and Care was highly commended for its COVID Rehab service, established to facilitate hospital discharge for patients with ongoing rehab needs, and give patients access to multi professional advice so that they are put onto the correct pathway to treat their symptoms.

The awards formed part of the KSS Respiratory Virtual Collaborative on June 29, which saw more than 100 colleagues from across the region coming together to hear from a range of experts, including:

  • Dr Bruce Pollington – Head of System Improvement SE Region, who discussed preparing for winter 2021/2022
  • Dr Martin Allen – Respiratory Consultant and National Respiratory GIRFT lead, who shares learning from the respiratory GIRFT programme
  • Carol Stonham MBE – Senior Nurse Practitioner Respiratory, who discussed the use of FENO in diagnostic pathways

Find out more about KSS AHSN’s Respiratory Programme.