Health Innovation West Midlands (HIWM) has published the results of its wound care pilot project, highlighting how the improvements and insights from the project could support wound care across the NHS and improve staff productivity.
The wound care pilot project saw HIWM working in collaboration with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System to investigate how the current wound care pathways could be developed to improve patient outcomes and streamline the care process.
This review of wound care pathways is essential to support the NHS in reducing wider pressures, including waiting times. Wound care in the primary care setting remains a complex and challenging area for clinicians. In a study by the NHS Benchmarking Network (2017/18), it was estimated that wound care costs the sector £8.3 billion each year, taking up 50% of community nurse time.
The project established an educational programme supporting primary care networks (PCNs) in delivering evidence-based wound care, including a 1.5 hour e-learning course and in-person training, improving knowledge of wound care pathways based on best practices.
Additionally, the programme also prompted the development of a resource package to support the assessment, diagnosis, and onward referral of wounds. To address more complex cases, a dedicated wound care clinic was established to assist PCNs in delivering the best possible wound care to patients.
The project involved several real-life case studies, highlighting the benefit of the revised wound care pathways. One such example included a male patient aged 45-60 with a traumatic wound on his left leg who was referred after his GP had tried to independently manage his care for several weeks. The nurse initially recognised the necessity for additional evaluation and referred the patient to the dedicated wound care clinic as part of the pilot programme. Following assessment and treatment, after nine weeks the wound was considered healed, an improvement of a third compared to the average healing time of three months for this type of injury. The patient was discharged back to his GP for ongoing hosiery management to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
The patient described his experience with the service as “absolutely excellent”, praising the advice provided and finding a sense of relief in having a management plan in place.
Joanne Terry, Project Lead for the Wound Management Project, described the wider impact of the project: “By adopting a collaborative, system-wide approach to wound care, the project has made a significant difference in the patient outcomes and nurse experience in the care pathway.
“The pilot project outlined learnings around best practice approaches that can be adopted on a wider scale, across ICBs, having a positive impact on both waiting times and productivity in the NHS.”
The next steps for the project are currently in discussion with HIWM happy to support further work.
HIWM continues to prioritise the delivery of evidence-based innovations and treatments, such as the wound care project, to support the improvement of NHS productivity, reduce waiting times, and improve the West Midlands’ overall health and wealth.
To learn more about the wound care pathways project, and how the project is supporting the NHS, please visit the wound care pathways page.
