HSJ Awards 2010: Procurement Initiative of the Year

2009 Winner World Class Commissioning - Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cardiac and Stroke Network/The Association of Greater Manchester PCTs

This year’s awards see the launch of another new category - Procurement Initiative of the Year. Here, one of the 2009 winners explains what winning an HSJ Award meant to them.

“It is fair to say that winning an HSJ Award genuinely was the highlight of our year,” reflects Janet Radcliffe, director of the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cardiac and Stroke Network. “To be the best in a category that covers such a broad spectrum, across commissioning and providing, was a huge pat on the back.”

Commenting on the stroke service that, since winning the award, has grown from a pathfinder exercise into a fully integrated model of care adopted across 10 PCTs, the judges praised the network’s success balancing local and collaborative commissioning across primary, acute and ambulance trusts.

“[We are] the first hyper-acute integrated stroke service with 24 hour coverage across a major conurbation,” says Ms Radcliffe. “Going back to 2006, just 10 patients were thrombolysed. By 2008 the figure had only risen to 20. Now we estimate that in the first five months of 2010 alone, of the 300 or so patients activating the hyper-acute pathway some 160 will have received thrombolysis.”

“The strength of our submission came from our ability to demonstrate how the network and [the association] had worked together,” adds Ms Radcliffe. “The clinicians developed the pathways… The PCTs pulled together the service specifications, economic modelling, governance arrangements and commissioning capability that then brought in the providers.”

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