What can we learn from COVID-19 about how to fund, co-ordinate and deliver rapid service evaluation in health and care?

 

Chair:

  • Prof Mike Roberts, Managing Director, UCLPartners

Presenters:

  • Prof Martin McKee CBE, Professor of European Public Health, London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Dawn Chamberlain, Programme Director Clinical Improvement and Beneficial Changes Covid-19 Recovery Lead, NHS England and NHS Improvement
  • Prof Ben Bridgewater, CEO, Health Innovation Manchester
  • Dr Manbinder S Sidhu, Research Fellow, BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre, Health Services Management Centre (HSMC), University of Birmingham

Summary

During COVID-19 pandemic, health and care services innovated and adapted quickly to provide care and protect patients and staff in the context of a rapidly developing global pandemic.

The unprecedented scale and pace of implementation of new pathways and service models, and a dramatic shift to digital and remote provision, resulted in a pressing need to understand whether major changes were indeed positive or potentially harmful.

This session will explore what we can learn from COVID-19 about how rapid service evaluations can be prioritised and resourced to enable more efficient and effective scale-up of health and care innovations, whether in or outside of a pandemic.

The discussion will draw on the findings of a recent AHSN Network white paper, led by UCLPartners and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, which pulled together insights from a range of stakeholders to put forward recommendations about how rapid service evaluation could be better funded, co-ordinated and delivered in future.

The session will also showcase examples of regional systems working in new and co-ordinated ways to evaluate changing services during COVID-19, as well as exploring how the national Beneficial Changes Network has been working to capture the benefits of changes that have taken place through COVID-19 and embed the learning of local experiences across the wider health and care sector.