Inside CW Innovation 5-year anniversary celebrations

Last week (12-18 October),
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and CW+, the Trust’s official charity,
celebrated the fifth anniversary of the CW Innovation programme with an action-packed schedule of events, including a five-year anniversary showcase event at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which was attended by NHS and industry
leaders, companies, partners and innovators.

The CW Innovation programme, which is led jointly by CW+ and the Trust, has a five-year proven track record of sourcing and implementing innovative, transferrable and
scalable solutions that transform patient care and the way the Trust’s hospitals are run.

The showcase event, supported by
Medtronic,
was a celebration of the programme’s achievements to date, bringing partner groups together and exhibiting a variety of innovation projects across data and digital, entrepreneurship, patient experience and remote monitoring. It was also an opportunity to articulate
the programme’s ambition for the next five years. Speakers included Caroline Clarke, Regional Director for the NHS in London, and Matthew Swindells, Chair of North West London Acute Provider Collaborative.

In an opening speech at this special event, the CEO of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Lesley Watts, said: ‘Over the past five years, CW Innovation
has developed into a prolific and active programme that supports the everyday care of patients. It brings energy to the Trust, empowering our staff to share and develop their ideas for improving healthcare, making it a place where innovation thrives.’

As part of the anniversary week, CW Innovation hosted an NHS Hack Day at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which was supported by
DrDoctor
and Patchwork Health,
and saw developers, clinicians, designers and innovators work together to develop solutions to NHS challenges. It also hosted the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) Insites event, which included a keynote speech from Professor Tony Young, National Clinical
Director for Innovation at NHS England and founder of the programme, who talked about how clinicians can help address the challenges the NHS faces today.

To mark the CW Innovation fifth anniversary, CW+ also unveiled a brand-new CW Innovation Hub at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which is an inclusive and adaptable
high-tech space dedicated to inspiring creativity and driving tangible improvements in patient care, hospital operations and staff engagement.
Chris Chaney, Chief Executive at CW+, said: ‘It has been fantastic to see healthcare professionals, innovators and researchers come together to mark the fifth anniversary of CW Innovation. We have achieved so much over the past five years, from embedding an Innovation Team across the Trust to testing and evaluating novel ways of working, which is at the heart of what we do.

‘We are excited to have opened our CW Innovation Hub, which will become a space where we can build on the foundations we’ve laid and create solutions together with Trust staff and partners.

‘CW Innovation will continue to support the Trust, its workforce and its community to work together in helping to improve the daily lives of our patients – today and in the future.’