A meeting to discuss ‘Symbiotic relationships to improve the healthcare system in Lincolnshire’ was hosted by NHS England and included representatives from the University of Lincoln (including CaHRU, the Lincoln Institute for Health and the Lincoln Medical School) and Lincolnshire NHS Trusts, took place on 30 October at the Hilton DoubleTree. The meeting was designed to discuss collaborative working and innovation to maximise improvements in patient care and system efficiencies across the county.
A welcome by Prof Andrew Hunter, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Lincoln, was followed by Prof Aly Rashid, Medical Director for systems improvement and professional standards at NHS England Midlands who discussed the new regulatory system for the NHS and particular issues faced by the county. In the next session on system challenges and opportunities there were talks on innovation and system improvement in action from Margaret Woolley from the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and Karen Glover, Dr Emma Rowley and Prof Azhar Farooqi from the new NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands. A session on supporting systems to improve clinical performance included talks from Prof Danny McLaughlin, Associate Dean of Medicine at the new Lincoln Medical School.
A discussion of the Lincolnshire system included talks from each organisation including acute care (Dr Andrew Simpson, Deputy Medical Director at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust), Community Care (Craig McLean, Deputy Director of Operations, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust), commissioning (John Turner, Senior Executive Lead, at Lincolnshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership and accountable officer for the Lincolnshire CCGs), primary care (Dr John Parkin, Executive GP at Lincs West CCG and Dr Sunil Hindocha, Clinical Director at Imperium Primary Care Network). The presentations were followed by a table discussion on putting collaboration into action focussing on organisational priorities, collaborative working, system efficiencies and innovation. The meeting ended with a series of pledges on future action.