A CHFT venture was in the finals of the prestigious Lord Carter* Award for Innovation. 

Senior Analyst Graham Smith and pharmacist Nigel Watson entered their project for the award in April and were delighted to be shortlisted in a very strong field. The other projects ranged from Oxford University Hospitals' Energy Project which has saved £1.2million in the first 9 months after installing new boilers, to Morecambe Bay CCG’s innovative patient flow technology to deliver integrated health and social care across an STP region. 

The CHFT entry  was called for ‘An Electronic Member of Staff for High Cost Drug processing’ was the brainchild of Graham and Nigel and has been developed over a few years.

Calderdale based Nigel Watson explained, “The computer program has been written by Graham and performs the complex process I previously had to do on paper. The aim is to maximise CHFT’s income from commissioners for high cost drugs. It used to take up to three weeks to complete with staff involvement from IT and finance and now it can be completed in one day by one person."

Graham, said:  “The benefits of the program have impacted on various departments at CHFT in a way that had not been envisaged at the start of the project. The output from the program is tailored to the end user's needs and is designed to avoid duplication of work. The program can be run multiple times to give consistent answers”.

The Head of Clinical Information, Lisa Fox added “It is essential that we encourage and support innovation at all levels. I am very proud to see this project progress.”

Deputy clinical director of pharmacy Fiona Smith, was equally supportive of the project which enables finance to have high cost drug information on day 1 of the finance cycle.

The collaborative project between THIS and pharmacy has allowed CHFT to meet the exacting data requirements of NHS England which would not have been possible without the program. 

After the award presentation in London earlier this month Graham Smith said “Even though our entry didn’t come first, we still felt we were winners by being shortlisted.”

*Lord Patrick Carter founded Westminster Health Care in 1985 which he built into a leading provider of care to both the private and public sectors in the UKHe was Chair of Sport England from 2002 to 2006, Board member of the London 2012 Olympic bid. He chairs the Department of Health Procurement and Efficiency Board.

He was made a Life Peer in 2004