MORE than £470,000 of funding has been received by a Dorset care system to create an innovation hub which will improve patient care.

Dorset Integrated Care System (ICS), the partnership of health and social care organisations in the region, has been selected to be part of a new programme supporting healthcare providers to enable faster and more effective uptake of improvements to patient care.

The ICS has received £475,000 of funding as part of the Adopting Innovation programme - run by independent charity the Health Foundation - which will be used throughout the NHS system to improve patient care and save the NHS time and money.

The funding will be used to help health, social care, and other services in the county, such as housing, meet the health needs of Dorset's older population, health inequalities and variation in life and healthy life expectancy. It will also be used to ensure new models of care, including digital technologies, do not exclude members of the population.

Dr Karen Kirkham, integrated care clinical lead in Dorset, said: "The innovation hub will give us the opportunity to adapt innovations best suited to meeting Dorset's clinical priorities, and to spread these across Dorset to provide equity of service, reduce health inequalities and improve care for patients."

A spokesman for the Health Foundation said: "The Covid-19 pandemic is creating unprecedented demands on the health service. Teams are having to rapidly adopt new ways of working and adapt to constant change. As we move into future stages of the response, the NHS will need to continue to innovate to provide patients with the care and support they need.

"Through the Adopting Innovation programme, we will support local health systems across the UK in facilitating effective adoption of health care innovations. In doing this, health care organisations can create long-lasting impact for patients and patient care."

The hub is being hosted by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD), which was formed after the merger of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Renaut, chief transformation and strategy officer at UHD, said: "We are thrilled by this boost to our ambitions. This will help us adopt and spread proven innovations across all sectors in Dorset, both faster and further.

"Together with our partners, this will mean we can provide better care for our population."