Integrated Care Northamptonshire celebrates national success at HSJ Awards
Integrated Care Northamptonshire (ICN) is celebrating success after a project to provide care closer to home for patients in our county was named a winner at the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards 2022.
The HSJ Awards recognises outstanding contribution to healthcare and is the largest annual benchmarking and recognition programme for the health sector.
Following a thorough judging process, including a detailed assessment process and a live presentation to a panel of industry professionals, Northamptonshire’s Point of Care Testing initiative won the Driving Efficiency through Technology Award – seeing off strong competition from a shortlist of nine technology projects from around the country.
Point of Care Testing is a new county-wide initiative from NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board which has been run as a pilot, with the key aims of providing patient care closer to home, allowing patients to stay in their home environment where clinically safe, and reducing admissions to hospital through effective community management.
Dr Adam Nawaz, Clinical Lead for Point of Care Testing, said: “We are proud to be named winners of a HSJ award and recognised for the hard work occurring in Northamptonshire. Our aim has always been to improve the access and quality of care our patients receive.
“I would like to particularly thank Ellie Wagg, Steven Reece and Dr Bharath Lakkappa for their unrelenting efforts in supporting this project and making it impactful. Finally, the Primary Care team at Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) has supported the project behind the scenes and continues to foster an environment of innovation and world-class healthcare. I am grateful to be a part of this and very much look forward to what more we can achieve in the coming years.”
Also shortlisted at last night’s HSJ Awards from Integrated Care Northamptonshire but just missing out on the top prizes were the Northamptonshire COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, in the COVID Vaccination Programme Award category; and the iCAN programme, in the Provider Collaboration of the Year Award category.
The Northamptonshire COVID-19 Vaccination Programme has delivered more than 1.8 million vaccinations across the county since its launch in December 2020, with particular care taken to work with communities to increase understanding about vaccination and to ensure everyone has had the opportunity to benefit. A proactive approach built on successful partnerships with community and faith leaders enabled the programme to maximise reach and increase uptake in some of the most vulnerable communities.
iCAN is a major transformation project is helping Northamptonshire’s elderly and frail residents aged over 65 to live well and stay well in the community.
Elsewhere at the 2022 HSJ Awards, Integrated Care Northamptonshire partners Northamptonshire Carers won the System Led Support for Carers Award for their ‘Carers as Equal and Expert Partners in Care’ initiative.