Member Article

Chester health innovation centre to launch with £25k grant

The North West Coast AHSN is supporting the launch of a new health and education innovation centre in Chester with a £25k funding grant.

The Centre for Integrated Healthcare Science (CHIS) is a joint venture between the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Chester, which will facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration across the two organisations.

Based at Bache Hall, adjacent to the hospital, the centre will act as a hub for innovation and collaboration; enabling the integration of research and education into health and social care.

The NWC AHSN funding will cover start-up costs for the venture – including development of IT links and infrastructure between the hospital and the Bache Hall site, the delivery of external access groundworks to the Centre, the refurbishment of the building, and the creation of a leadership role to implement and develop the project.

Chief executive of the North West Coast AHSN, Dr Liz Mear, said: “We’re very pleased to be working alongside Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Chester to support this exciting new project.

“The Centre will have a number of positive effects both within the Trust and the wider healthcare and education community.

“Integration will be at the heart of all the activities at the Centre, and we hope that this will help to spur on the original healthcare research coming from Chester; boosting research quality and activity, improving collaboration and innovation, and ultimately improving the quality of care delivered to the community as a whole.

“The Centre’s work will ultimately drive the development of truly integrated models of care from community to acute trust and back again.

“We hope that new collaborations which have never been explored will evolve; helping to spark the development of improved care pathways.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .