Aqua at the HSJ Awards 2023

On 16 November, we attended the Health Service Journal Awards in which two of our programmes were shortlisted. The HSJ Awards are a highly prestigious set of awards given to those delivering outstanding efforts and achievements in healthcare across the UK.

Whilst we didn’t take home the awards, it was a privilege to be recognised for our work on two truly impactful projects that produced real improvements in health and care across the North West.

We’d like to give a big thank you to the North West Ambulance Service, NHS England and the three regional ICBs for their support and drive on the North West Hospital Handover Improvement Collaborative which was shortlisted for the Patient Safety Award.

Here’s Aqua Programme Manager Jen Hopes on what it meant to be shortlisted:

We’d also like to thank Salford City Council Public Health, Greater Manchester Integrated Care and the many community groups that contributed to our Vaccine Access and Inequality project in Salford. The programme was shortlisted for the Innovation and Improvement in Reducing Healthcare Inequalities Award.

Here’s Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, Director of Public Health for Salford, on the importance of the project being shortlisted:

We were honoured to have been named alongside some brilliant organisations and teams who have achieved fantastic results from their work. We’d like to give a huge congratulations to Hull University Teaching Hospitals and City and Hackney PBP, NHS North East London, Hackney CVS, ELFT, London Borough of Hackney and Corporation of City of London for their very well-deserved HSJ awards!

You can see all the winners here: Winners 2023 | HSJ Awards

Aqua CEO Sue Holden said:

“I would like to offer congratulations to all of the fantastic winners at the HSJ awards. It was a proud achievement to have been shortlisted alongside such inspirational pieces of work. We were delighted to facilitate our partners to have difficult conversations, which lead to significant and impactful change across the North West.”

Jen Hopes, Programme Manager at Aqua for both programmes said:

It was fantastic to be nominated for the two awards, recognising all the amazing work that we have achieved along with our partners: NHS England, NWAS, Salford City Council, Trusts, PCNs and many community groups . I’m extremely proud of how we have collectively made a demonstrable impact in reducing inequalities in care and improving the safety and quality of care for people in the North West.

Using asset-based community development to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in Salford

Working in partnership with Salford City Council Public Health, Salford’s five primary care networks, and local community organisations, we collected and used community insight to rapidly design and deliver drop-in COVID-19 and flu vaccination clinics targeted to communities with high levels of vaccine hesitancy.

11 vaccination clinics were delivered to specifically targeted socio-economic and demographical groups within Salford. The programme was instrumental in overcoming deep-set vaccine myths within these communities, with the lead vaccinator at one clinic for the Black African Christian community stating that there were more vaccinations delivered in one day than in the previous six months.

Here’s Souhad Alhoussari and Jordan Moore from Salford City Council Public Health explaining the impact of the programme:

Ambulance Handover Improvement: System collaboration to improve patient safety during the winter of crisis

Along with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and NHS England, over the winter of 2022/23 we worked in partnership with the North West’s three Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and patients to co-design the North West Hospital Handover Improvement Collaborative. The collaborative had the aim of reducing 60 minute handover breaches by 50% by 31 March 2023.

The collaborative events provided a safe space for teams from the region’s 26 Emergency Departments (EDs) to share ideas, support each other and learn with the shared goal of reducing ambulance handover times. It was fantastic to see 23 of the 26 EDs make improvements against the target, and a total reduction in 60 minute handover breaches of 47%, all whilst navigating the most challenging winter period in NHS history.

Here’s Maxine Power from NWAS explaining how Aqua worked to bring organisations together for the Collaborative:

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