A New perspective

2 March 2020 was a big day in my house.

A new job, a new area of work and no more direct patient contact. Having worked as an NHS Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist for 12 years in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in South Wales the move felt timely, albeit a bit scary.

The transition butterflies were soon put to bed by my new teammates at Life Sciences Hub Wales. They were both welcoming and excited to pick my brain about what I had learnt about healthcare in my previous 12 years as a physiotherapist, team lead, public health practice advocate and all-round fan of the NHS.

One assumption I made about my new role was quashed early on and this was about direct patient contact. No, I would not be working face to face with patients any more but through the innovative projects I was working on I got the sense that knowing what was important to patients was going to be just as important, just from a different stance point.

My new normal was looking and feeling good.

Within Wales there is a huge amount of innovation taking place within health and social care. There’s also a raft of support and assets that are available from the varying organisations who each specialise is different aspects of the innovation pathway, such as; Accelerate Wales, Respiratory Innovation Wales, Digital Health Ecosystem Wales and the Bevan Commission.

Health and care innovation was starting to feel like a big multi-disciplinary team fuelled by collaboration and joint working.

As we moved through March, the New Normal looked like it was going to take a sharp diversion. Covid-19 complications became clearer and at Life Sciences Hub Wales we moved towards home working.

My thoughts went out to my colleagues in healthcare and the new challenges they were going to be facing.

What I did know was that the chaos of Covid-19 had the ability to transform health care forever and the role and discussion around innovation would become more and more important.

At Life Sciences Hub Wales we aim to:

·       - Improve health and wellbeing outcomes for people in Wales 

·        - Improve efficiency and value within the health and social care system

·        - Drive economic development through business growth and jobs  

In my new role as Health and Social Care Engagement manager I feel confident that these aims will align closely with those of my health and care colleagues and will form the basis of the big innovation conversations I am sure we will be having in the months ahead.  

As I step out of my professional safe zone, I look forward to not only broadening my knowledge of the health innovation pathway in Wales but also the wider NHS challenges that haven’t hit my clinical radar over the past 12 years.

If you would like to hear more about the work we are doing at Life Sciences Hub Wales to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative solutions for better health an

d wellbeing in Wales, just drop me a message or visit our website .

Happy to share and listen to improve.