Former adviser to US president visits The Walton Centre

US President Obama’s former health adviser Professor Don Berwick was visiting Liverpool to find out more about how trusts in the region are striving to improve care for patients.

As part of his tour of the city, Prof Berwick visited Liverpool Women’s Hospital, the Walton Centre and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital who are all involved in a national NHS programme aimed at transforming the way health and care is delivered across England.

They have been selected as ‘vanguards’ for the new care models programme which is playing a key part in the delivery of the Five Year Forward View – the vision for the future of the NHS. 

Vanguards are leading on developing new care models that will act as blueprints for the future of the health and care system in England. The vanguard initiative is seeing hospitals and other health organisations form new partnerships to create better ways of working.

The Walton Centre’s vanguard project – The Neuro Network - wants to improve care for patients with neurological conditions or back problems. The Trust is working with a number of other providers and organisations on the new model.

Liverpool Women’s and Alder Hey are working with other health trusts across Cheshire and Merseyside in the Women’s and Children’s Partnership Vanguard, aiming to improve care for mums and babies.

As vanguards, the trusts are playing a leading role and will be trialling new ways of working and delivering care that if successful can be replicated and shared across the country – benefiting patients nationally.

Prof Berwick, who is an influential expert on improving the quality and safety of health care, was finding out more about the two vanguards and a third, called the Healthy Wirral Vanguard, to see how they intend to shape future care and deliver results.

At The Walton Centre Prof Berwick met front line staff, senior consultants and managers.

Prof Berwick said he found The Neuro Network’s plans, which aim to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions for neurology and back patients by building on its existing work and sharing their expertise in this field, “very impressive”. He also said he could sense the enthusiasm for the project from the team.

Chief Executive Chris Harrop said: “It was a great privilege to welcome Don Berwick and tell him about our plans for The Neuro Network. During his questions he asked us why we wanted to change. We’re leading the way in a number of fields, in rehabilitation, trauma. We are system leaders. We have considerable expertise. But what motivates us is that we know with this new model of care we can make a difference to patients - how well they respond to treatment - and create a better patient experience and offer greater choice and we think The Neuro Network is something worthy of sharing with the rest of the country.”

At the Women’s hospital, Prof Berwick visited the delivery suite and neo-natal unit before talking with representatives from the Cheshire and Merseyside Women and Children’s Services Partnership Vanguard.

Simon Banks, Chief Officer at NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group and lead for the Partnership Vanguard, said: “We were delighted to welcome Don to the region to see and talk to us about the work that we’re doing to ensure health services for women and children are the very best that they can be. In pooling the considerable expertise of the organisations involved, we have the opportunity to shape new models of care for the people of Cheshire and Merseyside that could be replicated across the country.”

Mark Bakewell, Population Health Lead for the Healthy Wirral Vanguard, also met with Prof Berwick at the Women’s hospital to tell him about the work they are doing to fully integrate health and social care in the borough.

He said: “It was great to take part in the question and answer session with Prof Berwick and an excellent opportunity to talk about the really important work we’re doing in Wirral to use digital systems and patient research to design services that really deliver what matters to our patients.

“As we move towards a totally integrated health and social care system in Wirral, with technology and community involvement at its heart, it’s important to share learning with our regional partners. Prof Berwick’s passion about creating a learning culture to ensure patient safety is at the top of all our agendas is something we very much share.”

Prof Berwick is Barack Obama’s former health adviser who was asked by Prime Minister David Cameron to write a report about how patient safety in the NHS could be improved following the breakdown of care at Mid Staffordshire hospitals.

Among his recommendations, he wanted to see the NHS embrace a culture of learning and place quality and safety at the top of its agenda.

NHS trusts were invited to apply to become Vanguards and had to go through a rigorous selection process before their bids to improve care were approved.

The need for new models of care was identified in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. Published in October 2014, the document described the need for the NHS to adapt and evolve over the next five years if it is to close the widening gaps in the health of the population, quality of care and the funding of services.