Hospitals in BSW hold clinical summit to progress close working alliance

Hospitals in BSW have been working together as the BSW Acute Hospitals Alliance since 2018 as a way of improving and ensuring equal access to services and making savings that can be reinvested.

The Alliance is made up of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Joint working among the three organisations has significantly accelerated over the last few years with new leadership teams in place and lessons learned from the shared challenge of responding to Covid-19 and other pressures individually and collectively.

During the covid pandemic, the trusts shared staff and resources to work together to reduce the number of paediatric patients waiting a long time for oral surgery using a shared waiting list. Other clinical teams also work very closely on a regular basis, including virtual clinical teams, in dermatology and ophthalmology.

Now the working partnership has developed further after holding its first ever Clinical Summit recently at Salisbury Racecourse.

Each of the three trusts was represented at the event, which was attended by medical, nursing, Allied Health Professionals and management colleagues. Those attending discussed current challenges, urgent and emergency care performance, staffing issues and the BSW care model and how this is developing.

Those involved are producing a summary of the themes identified, and opportunities to be involved in the emerging work programme will be shared. Five further summits have been booked in.

An initial clinical strategy for the Trusts has now been drafted and is being reviewed by a working group. The draft strategy will continue to be shaped by a group of multi-disciplinary leads.

Overall, the strategy aims that, regardless of where they are treated, people in BSW should expect to be cared for on the same pathway and have the same outcome.