An HSJ roundtable, in association with Smith+Nephew, considered how wound care can be a priority for the NHS
In association with
The NHS has many Cinderella services, but wound care must be the one that has some of the greatest impacts on patients’ quality of life. It costs the NHS so much to care for, both in and out of hospital.
The cost of wounds to the public purse has been calculated at more than £8bn a year, forming a major component of community nurses’ workload. But there is also a human cost – more than two in five wound care patients have had their wound for more than three months and one in six have been admitted to hospital due to it.
Those sorts of figures would suggest wound care ought to be top of the agenda for NHS organisations with a concerted attempt to quantify and address the challenge. But that does not always seem to be the case.
An HSJ roundtable, in association with Smith+Nephew, looked at how wound care can be made a priority for the NHS and what can be done to improve services.
Read the detailed report here.
Panellists
- Denise Everett, assistant director, integrated nursing and conditions services Hull and East Riding, City Health Care Partnership
- Joanne Greengrass, essential standards of care quality improvement lead, Frimley Health and Care ICS
- Alison Hopkins, chief executive, Accelerate
- Jacqui Hughes, senior health outcomes manager, Smith+Nephew
- Joanna Swan, senior lecturer in tissue viability at Birmingham City University and tissue viability nurse
- Simon Wootton, managing director, Irwell Valley Consulting and former national wound care strategy lead
- Alison Moore, HSJ – chair
