Judges Shortlist Community NHS Trust For National Value In Healthcare Award

Innovative work to help ensure communities have the right nursing staff to support them has been shortlisted for a national award.

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) has developed a method to review individual communities' needs based on a range of information, including public health data, population size, activity data, the seriousness of patient conditions (acuity), how frequently patients are treated for specific conditions (prevalence) and best practice for workforce planning.

The work is being used to help design future community nursing - and has now been recognised as a finalist in the Workforce Efficiency category of the respected Health Service Journal's (HSJ) Value in Healthcare Awards.

Lisa Green, Deputy Chief Nurse at LCHS, explained: "Lincolnshire is a diverse county and we know that the needs of one area may not be the same as another. Our method is helping us to understand how we can better support patients to receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. There is currently very little national guidance on skill mix within community nursing services, so we are proud to be at the forefront of this work."

LCHS is the largest provider of community healthcare in Lincolnshire, with services including district and specialist nursing and therapy, which care for patients at home or as close to home as possible.

Ms Green added: "We've undertaken a significant amount of research in developing this formula, taking into account theoretical models and best practice nationally alongside our own local historical data and the practical expertise of our teams. Not only does this help improve quality and safety of care for local communities, it also helps us to grow a team which has better professional development opportunities in delivering modern healthcare, increases the amount of patient-facing time they have and makes us a more efficient and effective organisation."

The award winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on September 22.