News and blogs

Six days of activities to boost the health of mums and babies is taking place this week, 16-22 November, with the support of the Innovation Agency.

An NHS trust and two innovative suppliers claimed top honours at this year’s NHS in the North Excellence in Supply Awards. The awards were in three special categories to recognise the response of the health and care sector to COVID-19.

A manufacturing facility for civilian and surgical masks has been launched by Lancashire family business Issa Group. The new facility, Walton Mill, is based in the heart of Lancashire.

The Innovation Agency has appointed Dr Phil Jennings as chief executive, four years after he joined the organisation as medical director, later becoming deputy chief executive.

The former managing director of BAE Systems Corporate Services, Steve Fogg, has been appointed as chair of the SEED alliance - a multi-sector collaborative set up to contribute to ‘health and wealth’ in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

The AHSN Network, of which the Innovation Agency is a part, has published a rapid-learning report on the role of Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) during the pandemic. PSCs are just one part of the health and care system which responded quickly to the immediate crisis from COVID-19 in March. They reprioritised their day-to-day work and took on new programmes at speed, such as promoting safer tracheostomy care.

A project is under way in the North West Coast to tackle the potentially fatal condition of high cholesterol. The two-year programme is a collaboration between the Innovation Agency and pharmaceutical company Amgen to improve health outcomes for people with raised cholesterol who have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The Innovation Agency and fellow AHSNs are supporting a new national funding initiative led by the Health Foundation, to support healthcare provider organisations to adopt innovation faster.

A new report from The King’s Fund explores the evolution of the Innovation Agency since it began seven years ago as ‘a curious experiment’.

The economy in the North West Coast has received the biggest boost yet from the Innovation Agency.

In the last year alone, 343 businesses have been supported, resulting in the creation of 112 jobs; £12.8m funding secured; and more than £5.3m worth of new contracts with the NHS.