News
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement launched - 1 July 2005
Health minister Jane Kennedy has launched a new special health authority in England - the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.
The NHS Institute’s role will be to encourage modernisation, innovation and learning in the NHS, to promote an increased uptake of new healthcare products, treatments and procedures.
Ms Kennedy said: “Patients can now expect a better service from the NHS. The improvements that have been made to-date represent unprecedented progress but the challenge for the NHS is to improve further the quality of care for patients.
"I hope that from the outset the NHS Institute will rise to these challenges by making the best use of the skills, thinking and resources that it has within the NHS in order to lead the way by recommending changes that establish best practice across the NHS."
The Institute will focus on a small number of big priorities at any one time. The initial priorities will be reducing MRSA and healthcare-associated infections, achieving the 18-week GP referral to treatment target, improving productivity in the NHS and innovation in care outside hospitals.
The National Innovation Centre will be part of the NHS Institute. Based at the University of Warwick, it will operate as a network across the country.
Dame Yve Buckland, chair of the NHS Institute, said: “The NHS Institute is an exciting venture which will help to provide an ambitious focus for new ideas, technologies and practices to improve service to patients. Its priorities will reflect the priorities of the NHS.”
For further information from the Department of Health, click here.