Category Archives: Healthcare

Healthcare, News, NHS News

Northampton General Hospital achieves NHS cancer wait target

Patients with cancer at Northampton General Hospital are being seen within the NHS target time thanks to service changes and improvements.

During December 2020, the latest confirmed performance figures, the hospital achieved seven of the key targets set by the NHS nationally to provide cancer care for patients.

The success is down to changes to pathways including adopting national pathways for Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Skin, straight to test or nurse led triage. This removes unnecessary outpatient appointments and accelerates pathways at the beginning of the patient journey.

This means cancer would be confirmed at an earlier stage and treatment can start sooner.

Hospital Chief Operating Officer Carl Holland said: “While the targets help to keep us on track we all know that this isn’t about the numbers. There is a patient behind every one of these figures who has had their cancer investigations and, if necessary, their treatment started promptly and efficiently.

“Achieving these targets during winter and in the middle of a pandemic is an incredible achievement and I am very proud of all involved. Our teams have risen to the challenge of making cancer services a priority and we hope we can continue to meet these targets and provide the best possible care for patients.”

In December 2020, 94.5% of patients referred to the hospital with suspected cancer were seen within the national two-week wait target, and 52% of those patients were seen in 7 days or less. This target means that patients are seen within two weeks or less of being referred to the hospital by their GP.

Following the initial diagnosis at NGH, 98.7% of patients received their first treatment within 31 days of diagnosis or decision to treat, exceeding the 96% target set for the hospital.

Stephanie Buckley, Directorate Manager in Cancer Services, said: “We’re really proud to have achieved these targets for our patients. It is fantastic to see how these changes are having a real impact on patient care, and how by working more closely with colleagues from all areas of the hospital we can improve care for our patients during a difficult time.

“It has taken a huge amount of collaborative work and drive from many clinical teams and specialists to get to this point. Everyone has pulled together to make cancer services their number one priority and provide these positive changes.

“We know that there is still more we want to achieve. There are a number of new pathways due to be launched soon and further improvements and developments planned to ensure cancer services improve for those who need them.”

Cancer services have been maintained by the hospital throughout the pandemic despite pressures on wider hospital services. Additional support has been provided for patients during the pandemic to help them feel safe and comfortable coming to the hospital site. This has included staff providing one-to-one support for patients and a direct contact line to clinical nurse specialists if they have any concerns or queries.

For more information and support regarding cancer services at Northampton General Hospital please visit:
www.northamptongeneral.nhs.uk/Services/Our-Clinical-Services-and-Departments/Cancer-Services/Cancer-Services.aspx

COVID-19, Healthcare, News

Kunal Sawhney: Government’s Extra Boost, Predictive Modelling Likely to Bolster Fight Against Covid

Written by Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Group

The coronavirus pandemic has now been a year-long event with the Boris Johnson government, as well as local authorities struggling to contain the spread of the virus and handling the severe cases. In a bid to tackle the upcoming challenges of the pandemic as the country prepares to remove the nationwide lockdown, the UK government has recently directed additional monetary support to the respective administrations of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Additional aid

The Scottish, Welsh governments, and the Northern Ireland Executive are expected to receive extra support of £1.1 billion, £650 million, and £300 million, respectively. The fund has been primarily allocated to support the businesses, public services and people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

With the recent stimulus, the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish counterparts have separately received a total monetary aid to the tune of £9.7 billion, £5.85 billion, and £3.3 billion, respectively, since the onset of pandemic through the Barnett formula. As per the government directives, the funding support sanctioned can be carried over to spend in the next fiscal year or the complete amount can be spent within the current year.

Conclusively, the proportion of funds that are not utilised in the present financial year can be carried into 2021-22 on top of their extant tools to transfer funding between the years.

Comprehensive support

The size and scale of the coronavirus pandemic has unconditionally forced the governments and regional authorities to work collectively as the mutated strain of the virus has once again furthered the rate of infection. Therefore, the periodic monetary support packages alongside the ongoing vaccination programme at the national level are required to combat the repercussions of pandemic with the authorities readying an exit plan from the nationwide lockdown.

Identifying vulnerable patients

In order to make the immunisation process more dynamic, the researchers have introduced a new technology that would assist the clinicians in identifying a new cohort of people who
may be at high risk from Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. In a first, the clinicians will be using predictive risk models to gauge the adults who are more vulnerable to Covid-19.

With the help of predictive risk models, more than 800,000 adults will be prioritised to receive the jab as a part of JCVI-recommended priority groups. The predictive technology is formulated on the basis of the past medical records under which it analyses a combination of risk factors to assess the vulnerability of a patient. A vaccine will be administered on priority to all the individuals who are more vulnerable than previously recorded.

Prioritising patients

The University of Oxford has transformed their research into a risk-prediction model. The model has been separately validated by the Office for National Statistics. After the identification of vulnerable patients, all such individuals are added to the Shielded Patient List to expedite their vaccination process on a precautionary basis.

The individuals, identified to be more vulnerable, will be given appropriate advice and support alongside an early vaccination. With the predictive modelling technology, the healthcare officials and clinicians have already identified up to 1.7 million patients possessing more vulnerability to Covid-19. People over the age of 70 years have already been contacted for the first dose of vaccine with 820,000 adults between the age group of 19 and 69 years being prioritised for the inoculation.

The combined correlation between several personal and health factors including the ethnicity, age, any ongoing treatment, specific medical conditions, and body mass index can help in identifying the people who are at a higher risk from Covid-19, the research stated.  The University of Oxford’s model to develop a population risk assessment has been used by the National Health Service (NHS) Digital.

The research

The University of Oxford-led research involving predictive modelling of patients is commissioned by England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, developed by a subgroup of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). With the continuous monitoring of more vulnerable patients, the healthcare authorities can certainly minimise the rate of fatality by providing vaccines to the most needy.

Healthcare, News, Research, Science

Newcells Biotech secures over £5m for 3D tissue models

Newcastle-based human stem cell model specialists, Newcells Biotech, have secured a total of £5.25m worth of funding to accelerate their growth plans in the international life sciences market.

The funding comes from two existing backers. Mercia has invested from its Northern Venture Capital Trust (VCT) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) funds and the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); while NorthStar Ventures invested from the North East Innovation Fund, which is also supported by the ERDF. This funding round will help Newcells Biotech expand their growth in 3D tissue modelling for drug discovery.

The investment will be used to spearhead the biotech company’s international expansion in the USA, growing their existing commercial operations and launching innovative new products. This second major investment means the company has received a total of £10m of non-dilutive and equity funding over the last 5 years.

Newcells Biotech is a commercial stage life science company exploiting its proprietary technology in stem cells (iPSC) and cell biology to build models of human tissues. This pioneering modelling technology improves the ability to generate data on the safety, efficacy, and pharmacology of drugs prior to human trials. The seven-figure investment will accelerate the development of models for liver and lung conditions, the latter of which could advance the research into SARS-CoV-2 and its treatments. The investment will also be used to fast track the commercialisation and launch of their kidney and retina treatment models in its major North American market.

Commenting on their recent investment success, CEO Dr Mike Nicholds said, “Over the last two years Newcells has made great progress in bringing innovative products and services to market that have delivered value to our global pharmaceutical customers. Whether it be in understanding how new drugs interact with the kidney or the retina, our scientists have produced data that has helped lower the risk of early drug discovery projects. The input and support of Mercia and NorthStar has been invaluable in driving forward the business. Our vision is to bring the best in vitro biology to market, improving the productivity of drug discovery and development”.

Tim Levett, Mercia Asset Management, said, “Since our first investment the team at Newcells have made great strides forward both in the development of new organoids and in winning contracts with major global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Our substantial investment will fund the resources that will enable Newcells to accelerate growth and become a global market leader in four high growth areas. “

Alex Buchan, Investment Director, NorthStar Ventures, said, “We’re delighted to continue to support Newcells with developing their cutting-edge products and services. We’ve been impressed with the vision and drive of the team and look forward to the continuing expansion and scale up of this vital work.”

Health Tech, Healthcare, News

The Royal Marsden partners with Agilisys to innovate data systems as part of digital transformation goal

Working with Agilisys, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust sets its sights on cloud-provisioned services to deliver transformational informatics for its clinical, research and operational communities

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has selected a consortium led by Agilisys to help deliver a new, innovative informatics environment for its clinical, operational and research analytics over the next five years.

This initiative is an integral part of the Trust’s wider digital transformation objective which will help to improve ways of working through providing a more updated, innovative storage system for patient and clinical data that can be used in a better way to provide insights and help inform decisions for patients. It replaces a system that was first developed by The Royal Marsden nearly four decades ago and was, at the time, one of the first clinical databases and fully integrated electronic patient record (EPR) solutions.

The Royal Marsden is a world-leading cancer centre specialising in cancer diagnosis, treatment, research, and education. As the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe, The Royal Marsden sees nearly 60,000 patients every year. Together with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), working closely with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), its ground-breaking research influences how cancer patients are treated and cared for across the UK and around the world.

The Royal Marsden is now investing in a solution, delivered in partnership with ClikHealth Solutions and Aridhia, that will enhance its ability to undertake transformational clinical informatics. Once fully operational, the system will provide staff with advanced data and analytics that will support the continued delivery of the highest standards of patient care. Clinical researchers and scientists will have rapid access to both the data and the tools that will enable radical new approaches into cancer research. In addition, hospital staff across all disciplines will benefit from access to their own suite of analytical tools and visualisations all driven from the same patient-centric cancer data model.

Steven Francis, Director of Performance & Information at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said: “The new solution we are designing with Agilisys will enable us to make a significant step-change in the way the organisation interacts with data in all aspects of research, planning, and delivery of care. Our clinical and operational data is such a rich, asset, and we must ensure it can be securely and appropriately leveraged by clinicians, staff and our academic partners to provide insights, inform decisions, and facilitate discovery.”

“Through the Agilisys-led solution we will be able to redefine how stakeholders interact with data, whether on their mobile phone, tablet or laptop. They will have the right information, at the right time to make the right decisions.”

This ambitious goal requires the re-engineering of The Royal Marsden’s cancer data model, built for the future, optimised to deliver rapid insights and to exploit all the benefits of a robust and secure cloud platform provided through Microsoft Azure technologies. The solution will provide a high-performance database which will be capable of processing large volumes of structured and unstructured data with proprietary machine learning algorithms.

Agilisys is one of the UK’s fastest growing and innovative cloud and digital transformation specialists across the public sector, enabling organisations to adopt technologies, platforms and processes that promote new ways of working.

The Royal Marsden currently has an active portfolio of over 450 research trials and recruits over 4,000 trial patients each year. Upgrading the data environment will provide new ways for teams to rapidly identify patients who will benefit from specific clinical trials, supporting data driven research by being able to supply up-to-date data at volume.

Paul Williams, BRC Informatics Programme Manager at The Royal Marsden said:

“The Royal Marsden and ICR together operate the only Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) dedicated to cancer. We are one of 20 BRCs in England, each funded by the National Institute for Health Research, and our goal is to undertake translational research that rapidly accelerates clinical discoveries from the research environment to direct patient care – a ‘bench to bedside’ approach. This initiative represents a paradigm shift in our informatics capability, laying the foundation for the development of AI technologies in imaging and clinical decision-support informatics that will have a radical impact on patient care.”

Max Jones, Managing Partner – Health at Agilisys added: “The Royal Marsden wanted to do a complete data refresh from top to bottom so that it could improve the way stakeholders interacted with the data. To glean as much potentially life-saving information from the data as possible, it was imperative that complex algorithms could be run atop the data.

“The proposed solution offers a cost-effective means for Royal Marsden to store, process and access several terabytes of sensitive data in seconds. The project supports The Royal Marsden in maintaining its position as a digital trailblazer in healthcare.”

Agilisys is an established partner for the public sector. For over two decades the customer and outcomes focused organisation has earned a strong reputation and holds deep domain expertise to deliver change and innovation.

About The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world’s first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.

Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe seeing and treating over 59,000 NHS and private patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.
The Royal Marsden, with the ICR, is the only National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer. This supports pioneering research work carried out over several different cancer themes.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. It ensures Royal Marsden nurses, doctors and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments, which are used across the UK and around the world.

From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

About Agilisys

Agilisys is the technology and transformation partner for the public sector. For over 20 years we’ve partnered with healthcare, local government and organisations throughout the public sector. Working together to unlock the potential of technology and transform the services that improve lives. To find out more visit www.agilisys.co.uk

Healthcare, News

Healthguard Hygiene relaunches as Bothongo Hygiene Solutions

Healthguard Hygiene, based in Towcester, Northamptonshire, is changing its name to Bothongo Hygiene Solutions. The restructuring is in line with the need to consolidate the Bothongo Group’s growing global activities in the hygiene category. Bothongo Hygiene Solutions is a sister company to InnuScience, the established manufacturer of biotechnology cleaning products, and the same integrated UK sales team will be responsible for both companies.

Healthguard Hygiene CEO, Nick Winstone, remains at the helm of the rebranded company. He takes up the story: “In 2020, we responded to the urgent need for hygiene products to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and created Healthguard Hygiene out of the Bothongo group of companies. Being incredibly agile, with the help of our supply chain partners, we were able to supply predominantly frontline users in the UK with 10 million bottles of sanitiser.”

Having built up a solid base of satisfied customers and assessed new opportunities in the janitorial and hygiene space, it became clear that consolidation was needed across the Bothongo Group’s main markets in Europe, North America and Africa. To ensure consistent positioning, Healthguard Hygiene took the decision to rebrand in order to reinforce their association with the Bothongo Group, and renamed the business Bothongo Hygiene Solutions UK Ltd.

“Bothongo Hygiene Solutions’ mission is to provide best in class and value-based cleaning products,” Nick adds. “The approach to hygiene is changing post-2020 and we’ve launched over 60 new products that are aligned to a post-Covid era. Our vision is a world where people can live with confidence, knowing they are protected against pathogens by the use of our products to clean their environments.”

Alison Minter, group sales director of Bothongo Hygiene Solutions and InnuScience, is confident that the market will react positively to the name change and the new offering, saying “I would like to assure all of our loyal Healthguard Hygiene customers that our team will continue to provide them with excellent service, and that they can look forward to even more choice when it comes to quality hygiene products at competitive prices.”

Healthcare, News, NHS News

New SME consortium to enhance NHS digital services

A new SME consortium, consisting of five companies, has been accepted onto the Crown Commercial Services’ Digital Capability for Health Framework.

The multi-million pound initiative, which runs over four years, aims to put in place a Collaborative Agreement for use by NHS Digital and other national, regional and local public sector health and social care bodies, for the provision of digital outcomes and supporting services.

The group of like minded SMEs which have secured a place on the framework, led by the prime contractor, Hippo Digital, include:

Hippo Digital – Digital service design and data management
Answer Digital – Digital transformation and engineering
Apira Ltd – Delivering Digital Journeys across healthcare
Made Tech – Public sector technology delivery
The Data Shed – Data solutions

With the framework covering DevOps Services, Digital Definition Services, Build and Transition Services, End-to-End Development Services and Data Management Services, the consortium’s range of specialist skills will provide the NHS and health and social care organisations with access to digital skills and products that will improve services for both staff and patients.

The group will also provide an avenue to help the Government reach its goal of channelling a third of external spending through small and medium sized enterprises by 2022, providing the public sector with easy, centralised access to services from five approved SMEs.

Adam Lewis, Managing Director, Hippo Digital
“We are proud to have been accepted onto the framework and having such an accomplished group of SMEs by our side brings added strength and depth to our combined capability. Together with our partners, we blend an exciting mix of specialist skills and healthcare experience to provide maximum value to our clients and their service users.

“Our relationship with the healthcare service stretches back to the very beginning of the Hippo Digital story and we are delighted to have the opportunity to build on that partnership in the future.”

Rich Pugmire, Director, Answer Digital
“We’re immensely proud and excited at the opportunity this framework award gives us to strengthen our relationship with NHS Digital. Combining our depth of healthcare experience with the fantastic partner organisations within the consortium, we are looking forward to delivering a range of exciting services and giving the amazing people at Answer a genuine opportunity to make a difference.”

Mark Jones, Managing Director, Apira Ltd
“We were very pleased to join the Hippo Digital consortium bid for this framework and are delighted to have received confirmation that the consortium has been successful in obtaining a place on the framework. We very much look forward to working with Hippo and consortium partners in supplementing the digital capability of national, regional, and local health and care organisations over the next four years.”

Hazel Jones, Head of Health, Made Tech
“The UK is home to a broad range of innovative SMEs which provide digital solutions and services that have the potential to revolutionise health and social care. This group brings together five of these organisations united by a shared passion to provide lasting value to the public sector, employees and service users.

“Made Tech is excited to be working with such a great set of partners to help the NHS and health and social care bodies thrive, both now and in the future.”

Anna Sutton, CEO, The Data Shed
“Collaboration is in our DNA at The Data Shed and we’re really excited to be working alongside our talented partners in this consortium. We all have specialist skills and strong healthcare experience and together we’ll make a big difference to the quality of care provision within the NHS and other care organisations.

We’ve seen in the last year how we’ve relied on the NHS even more than usual and we’re proud to be playing our part in using digital solutions to transform the future of health and social care.”

Cybersecurity, Healthcare, News

Rick McElroy: Ransomware Attacks Targeting Healthcare Surge

Targeted, sophisticated, and costly – over the past couple of months, several high-profile ransomware attacks have been reported with a specific focus on some of the largest healthcare providers across the world. With the recent surge in telemedicine adoption due to the COVID-19 as well as the growth of digital healthcare tools, cybersecurity is a real concern for these organisations as they navigate the expanding threat landscape.

When it comes to ransomware, the stakes are especially high for healthcare organisations. Data—specifically, sensitive patient information needed to deliver the best care and safely run these organisations— is a prime target for attackers who use ransomware to steal, encrypt, and hold data for ransom. When these malicious software attacks hit an organisation’s server, healthcare organisations are often forced to take their computer systems offline to stop the spread of the attack, which can lead to lapses in inpatient care.

So why are these attacks happening?

Cybercriminals Targeting Healthcare Organisations

One of the key reasons behind these attacks for the cybercriminals is a return on investment.  Whenever a sense of urgency is perceived by the organisation, the faster organisations will consider paying the ransom.

That said there are two main competing factors that have led to the rise in ransomware in this sector. The mission of these organisations is to protect lives and treat patients, so this leaves them more apt to pay fast when something happens. Secondarily, the prioritisation of compliance over security and a long digital supply chain has left healthcare organisations vulnerable. This has of course all been compounded by the pandemic and the rapid adoption of new technologies to meet the needs of patients.

Ransomware: To Pay or Not to Pay?

Organisations confronted with the reality of a ransomware attack have seemingly few options at their disposal. Even worse if the companies pay the ransom, there is “no real guarantee” that the hackers will restore the data. Worse, the criminals may keep the data for resale or further extortion.

The recent guidelines by the U.S. Department of the Treasury 2 highlight issues around sanctions as they have the potential to affect ransomware payments. Payment becomes a risk calculation for the organisation in addition to perpetuating the threat of ransomware as a whole.

Stolen data often ends up on the dark web which is now estimated to be the third-largest economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum 3. To combat the business of ransomware, organisations should not pay.

Organisations hit with ransomware attacks and any firms that help ease negotiations with ransomware criminals could now face costly fines from the U.S. federal government if the hackers are already under economic sanctions, according to the new advisory from the guidelines by the U.S. Department of the Treasury2  More and more is being done to discourage ransomware payments in the effort to stop further attacks.

Increased Attacks on the Healthcare Industry During COVID-19

Last month, a ransomware attack hit Düsseldorf University Clinic in Germany crippling the server and encrypting data. With the hospital’s systems down, a patient who was seeking emergency treatment had to be moved to a hospital 20 miles away but died before she could be treated 4.

For healthcare organisations, ransomware attacks could mean a matter of life or death for patients. The importance of cybersecurity goes far beyond data protection. Foss elucidates the global social impact these attacks carry.

With the first death directly associated with ransomware happening recently and the massive impact that the latest ransomware attack will have on United Healthcare Services, we need to consider the larger risk that these types of destructive attacks can have on society as a whole.  These criminal groups are not going anywhere, and in fact, just the opposite is happening, they are growing, expanding, and partnering up to increase their capabilities by making tooling easy and accessible for even those without the technical skill to get involved and begin profiting from ransomware.

The dark web supplies a marketplace for attackers and criminals to communicate, buy, and sell stolen data, illegal access, and attack kits. The innovation attackers are using and the increasingly sophisticated advances they are making is really quite astounding.

The exploitation and resale of direct access into corporate networks is exploding. Attackers are leveraging modular and increasingly more capable malware to maximise profits. Data theft, remote access trojans, credential stuffing, initial access brokers, and more are nothing new to the threat landscape that we have all become accustomed to. However, the dynamic expansion of core capabilities allows for more diversity in their overall operations. This results in new alliances, improved tooling, and collaboration that will further their overall impact and reach.

Staying One Step Ahead of the Attackers

We can expect ransomware to continue affecting healthcare as cybercriminals look to cash-in on the strained healthcare systems amid the pandemic.

It’s a true struggle for healthcare information security teams.  They are still underfunded and understaffed. Organisations need to invest in proactive security technologies and humans to find and disrupt these attackers in their environments in real-time. We are past the point of human safety is an issue. Patient care should not be affected due to a ransomware attack.

 

Finance and Banking, Healthcare, Innovation, Investment

IQ Endoscopes secures Development Bank of Wales and Creo Medical led £1.5m funding round to develop single-use flexible gastroscopes

The Development Bank of Wales is co-investing with corporate investor Creo Medical Group plc alongside other funders as part of a £1.5 million equity round into IQ Endoscopes Ltd.

The investment will support the rapid product development of the IQ platform – a range of single use flexible endoscopes which provides images of the full length of the gut, helping in diagnostics and therapeutic procedures.

AIM listed Creo Medical is an emerging Med-Tech leader and has developed CROMA, an electrosurgical Advanced Energy Platform powered by its unique full spectrum Kamaptive technology, which combines bipolar radiofrequency for precise localised cutting and microwave for controlled coagulation.  Creo Medical has also developed a suite of medical devices designed, initially, for the emerging field of GI therapeutic endoscopy.

The IQ Scope is IQ Endoscope’s leading product. The IQ platform will initially consist of a complementary disposable gastroscope and colonoscope, which can be used safely with Creo Medical’s suite of consumable GI devices. IQ Endoscopes believes that single use endoscopy can eliminate the risk of disease transference and is easy to deploy outside of hospital settings making it ideal for developing countries where endoscopy procedures are rare.

Creo Medical has been supported by the Development Bank of Wales as an investor over multiple rounds through to their successful IPO on AIM in 2016. Creo Medical is now working alongside the Development Bank as a corporate investor. The Development Bank is an active equity co-investor, with funds available for high-growth potential technology businesses from seed and spin-out through to IPO and beyond.

Creo Medical CEO Craig Gulliford will join the board of IQ Endoscopes as a non-executive director.

Craig Gulliford, Chief Executive Officer of Creo Medical, commented: “IQ Endoscopes disruptive technology eliminates the risk of cross contamination which is at the forefront of clinicians’ minds at the moment with the prevalence of COVID-19. Practitioners can’t risk contamination between endoscopy procedures. Creating a disposable endoscope, which is expected to be positioned at a lower cost point than current technology, is an extremely thrilling prospect and the reason why Creo Medical is keen to support the product development to get IQ Scope and platform to market as quickly as possible.”

IQ Endoscopes, will relocate its operations to Wales following the funding round.

Matt Ginn, CEO of IQ Endoscopes added: “We are delighted to have secured this initial investment from the Development Bank of Wales, Creo Medical and a group of angel investors. It provides us with the perfect opportunity to rapidly develop our product technology and bring to market a range of single use, flexible endoscopes. Our platform will not only eliminate all threat of cross contamination between endoscopy procedures, but also increase throughput of patients. Having worked in the medical device industry for over 15 years, IQ Endoscopes has a vision for technology that will have global impact.”

Dr Richard Thompson, Senior Investment Executive at the Development Bank of Wales said: “IQ Endoscopes has an impressive team and platform technology that addresses a vast global market. This is a real opportunity to develop a new, complementary medical technology that can widen access to endoscopy. Creo Medical has significant expertise in this area, which is why we are delighted to further deepen our working relationship with them and this impressive syndicate of angel investors as a part of this funding round.”

Healthcare

Northampton General Hospital receives £15.9m to build a new critical care facility

Northampton General will receive £15.9 million to build a new on site critical care facility thanks to capital funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to upgrade and improve NHS buildings.

NGH will use the funding to build a new 24 bed critical care unit which will be located next to the new South Entrance which is currently under construction. This unit will care for those patients who need specialist intensive care.

Deborah Needham, Hospital CEO at NGH, said “We’re delighted that we have been awarded with this funding to build our new critical care facility.

“This facility is vital for the safety of our patients, so being able to provide care in a new and improved space will ensure we can provide an enhanced patient experience. For our critical care team this news will also provide a much needed boost following a challenging year”.

Building works are already underway for the new development and the new unit is due to open in 2021

Awards, Environment, Healthcare

Northampton General Hospital Shortlisted for Environmental Sustainability Award at the 2020 HSJ Awards

Northampton General Hospital is delighted to announce that they have been shortlisted for the Environmental Sustainability Award at the 2020 HSJ Awards, recognising their outstanding contribution to healthcare.

Despite the tough competition, the hospital was shortlisted from over 1000 entries for the Green Steps to Sustainability project. This selection was based on their ambition, visionary spirit and the demonstrable positive impact that their project has had on patient and staff experiences within the health and social care sector.

The judging panel is made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community including Sir Bruce Keogh, Chair, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s FT, Mark Axcell, Chief Executive, Black Country Healthcare FT and Caroline Beardall, Director of Workforce and OD, NHS England and NHS Improvement – South East.

The entry has been based on the hospital-wide actions that have been taken to reduce NGH’s environmental impact.

These actions include:

  • Reduction in carbon emissions from heating, lighting and power in line with NHS targets
  • Reduction in the environmental impact of the anaesthetic department through changes in the use of anaesthetic gases
  • Removal of over a million pieces of single use plastic each year from the staff restaurants and from the wards
  • Enabling home working for over 10% of staff during Covid, which has reduced local pollution as well as reducing fossil fuel us
  • Introduction of reusable gowns and named, reusable theatre hats

Clare Topping, NGH Energy and Sustainability Manager said 

“Recognition for our work in reducing our environmental impact has illustrated just how many departments in the hospital can and have made a positive difference.  This is all down to great teamwork across the hospital”.

Now in its 40th year, the HSJ Awards is the largest annual benchmarking and recognition programme for healthcare. Through a rigorous, fair and transparent judging process the awards produce a roll call of the best organisations, teams and people in the NHS and the wider health sector.

The full list of finalists for the 2020 HSJ Awards can be found on https://awards.hsj.co.uk/2020-shortlist. Winners will be selected ahead of the ceremony, which will take place virtually in March 2021.