Harrogate NHS Trust's pioneering approach for patients brings national success in Health Tech News Awards

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) won not one but two major awards at the prestigious HTN Now 23/24 Awards which celebrate innovations, teams and health tech suppliers that are having an impact on health and care services.

The Trust received the Innovation in Health and Care Award and was named Overall Winner of the HTN Now Awards for its Harrogate Post Procedure Patient Innovation (HAPPI) Project.

The pioneering initiative was launched with the aim of changing the culture of how surgeons communicate with patients after day case surgery, by sending a personalised video message on the day of their procedure.

Before the introduction of the personalised video messages, 75 percent of patients who underwent a day surgery procedure felt they needed a further appointment to help clarify the information they had been given on their treatment.

The new initiative is helping to reduce the number of follow up outpatient appointments that are required.

In the initial study only 15 percent of patients who received a personalised video message felt they needed a follow-up appointment.

Dr Jacqueline Andrews, Executive Medical Director at HDFT said the success of the HAPPI Project was only the start of improvements to healthcare for patients in the Harrogate district.

"HAPPI is helping us to further improve on the healthcare we are able to provide for our patients by providing them with information on their treatment in an easily accessible way,” said Dr Andrews.

"By reducing the number of appointments required for individuals, we can offer these to other people requiring our help which will, ultimately, reduce waiting times for people to be seen.

“We are delighted to announce we will be opening our new Healthcare Innovation Hub at St James Business Park in Knaresborough this spring.

"As a result, we will be able to work on even more innovative ideas to improve healthcare.”

The personalised video messages were first introduced by Harrogate NHS Trust for patients undergoing arthroscopic surgery of the knees.

Following the success of the initiative, it has now been expanded to include patients undergoing hand surgery, gynaecology, and shoulder surgery.

The solution is set to be expanded across other specialties in the future.

HDFT is looking at how the benefits of HAPPI can be shared with other NHS Trusts.

Mr David Duffy, Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics, who led the project said: “This is a simple, hugely effective, and inexpensive solution to a genuine problem all healthcare providers experience.

"Expecting a patient to remember details of surgery, recovery and important milestones after they have been anaesthetised or sedated is just not realistic.

“Providing a simple video message that can be viewed multiple times by patients or carers provides clarity and improves the quality of healthcare delivered.

"The potential benefits of this initiative are enormous when scaled across the NHS with minimal implementation cost.

"We are now helping other hospitals embrace this concept with Harrogate having developed a blueprint to embed this into clinical practice.”

HDFT is keen to hear about innovative ideas on how technology can be used to help improve healthcare services and can be contacted by emailing [email protected]