Working with our partners

One of our key strategic objectives is to ‘collaborate effectively with local and regional partners’.

We are committed to doing this at a number of levels, both in Bradford and across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate region.

The aim is that working together in this way will improve the care provided to patients and improve the health of people in Bradford and across West Yorkshire.

BTHFT is a key player in the work of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WYHCP), which consists of organisations – including local government, the NHS and voluntary sector – working closely together to plan health and care services across the region.

This is a genuinely new approach to partnerships, built from the bottom up using plans developed in the six local places that make up the region (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield). The WYHCP work focuses on a set of agreed priorities, which are delivered via a number of different programmes of work.  Some examples of these programmes include:

• The Cancer Alliance Programme, which is focusing on reducing waiting times to improve outcomes for patients;
• The Local Maternity System Programme, which aims to give mothers a more seamless experience throughout pre and post-pregnancy care;
• The Stroke Programme, which is looking at the best locations to deliver hyper-acute stroke services;
• The Urgent and Emergency Care Programme, which helps prioritise actions organisations take to ensure they manage the increasing number of people using the service.

As well as this, the WYHCP is designing its own governance system that means its own local organisations (rather than national bodies) take the lead in monitoring and improving NHS performance across the region.

BTHFT staff and clinicians are taking part in all these programmes and working hard to ensure they are successful.

You can find out more about all the partnership’s programmes as well as its overall strategy here. A number of case studies have also been produced which demonstrate the difference the partnership is making.

The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT) is a collaboration between the six NHS trusts which deliver acute hospital services across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

WYAAT’s vision is for all partners to work together to improve the quality, equality and efficiency of healthcare services, to consistently deliver the highest quality of care and outcomes for our patients.

The six trusts who make up WYAAT are:

• Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Airedale NHS Foundation Trust
• Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust
• Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
• Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Bradford Teaching Hospitals is actively involved in WYAAT’s programmes to improve our services for the people of Bradford and more widely across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. WYAAT’s programmes include:

• The Yorkshire Imaging Collaborative – rolling out a new IT system which will enable clinicians to share images such as x-rays and other scans, which will improve the care provided to patients;
• Working together to reduce variation in the quality of services offered by the six trusts, to make the system financially sustainable and improve outcomes for the public.

The chief executives of the six trusts meet monthly to discuss strategic issues and provide oversight to collaborative programmes. The WYAAT chief executives and chairs also meet regularly to make shared decisions in the best interests of patients in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

If you would like further information about WYAAT, you can receive the latest updates from the WYAAT website and the WYAAT hospitals Twitter account.

We are committed to working with our local partners in health and social care and the voluntary sector, to achieve our vision for the people of Bradford District and Craven:

• People will be happier, healthier and have access to high quality care when needed that is clinically and financially sustainable;
• People will take action, and be supported to stay healthy, well and independent through their whole life and will be supported by their families and communities through prevention, early intervention with greater focus on healthy lifestyle choices and self-care;
• When people need access to care and support it will be available to them through a proactive and joined up health, social care and wellbeing service designed around their needs and as close to where they live as possible.

In order to deliver this vision, we are working with commissioners (Bradford City CCG and Bradford Districts CCG) and have formed an alliance with other providers of health and care in Bradford, the Bradford Provider Alliance, which is made up of the following six members:

• Bradford Care Alliance Community Interest Company
• Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Bradford Voluntary and Community Sector Alliance
• City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
• Local Care Direct
• Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The alliance has begun work to improve the care provided to people diagnosed with diabetes and we are committed to working closely with each other to prevent people from developing diabetes.

These are particularly important areas of focus in Bradford, which has a high prevalence of diabetes in its population.

Community partnerships are an innovative approach to providing more personalised, proactive and preventative care and support for local people.

In Bradford there are ten community partnerships, each covering a population of 30-60,000 people. Their aim is to provide care and support closer to people’s homes by delivering more proactive and joined-up health, social care and wellbeing services.

This model enables staff from GP surgeries, community and mental health services, hospitals, social care, community pharmacies, care homes, home support services and the voluntary sector to work more closely together. BTHFT is involved in all ten community partnerships.

Priorities in the community partnerships vary based on the needs of the local population and include: improving diabetes care, support for people who are housebound and living in care homes, improving end-of-life care and improving child health and wellbeing.