Invitation to Innovate

Oxfordshire PCT, through the Better Healthcare Programme, is encouraging interested parties to submit proposals aimed at retaining and developing services at the Horton General Hospital and resolving the issues they face as a smaller acute general hospital. The process is called the Invitation to Innovate.

The ‘invitation to innovate’ is asking for people and organisations to submit ideas which will:

  • Ensure the sustained provision of local acute medical services, particularly maternity; paediatrics, gynaecology and A&E.
  • Provide a clear role for the Horton General Hospital which delivers the Independent Reconfiguration Panel’s recommendations.
  • Fit with Oxfordshire PCT’s strategy for Banbury and the surrounding area and address the health needs of local people.
  • Take account of the issues facing rural settlements and market towns within the Horton’s catchment area.
  • Create new ideas which perhaps challenge existing models of NHS provision, and which may draw on alternate models from other health care systems.

Every idea received (no matter where it comes from) will go through the same assessment criteria so that everything is treated in a transparent way.

This is an opportunity for a truly innovate model of care to be developed. The outcome of this Invitation to Innovate will be showcased at a national conference to be held in October 2009, which will focus on the issues faced by small acute hospitals.

Interested parties are being asked to submit an outline proposal by 30 April 2009. The proposal should include the following basic level of detail:

  • Title/name for idea proposed
  • Description of idea
  • Scale: will the idea deliver a complete acute healthcare service, or does is focus on specific services/patient groups?
  • Timescale: for implementation
  • Indication of cost implications

Supporting Materials

Respondents who are shortlisted will then be asked to work with the Better Healthcare Programme to develop their ideas over a three month period. The service models developed during this period will then be subject to an evaluation process involving patients, public, clinical staff and other stakeholders.

Oxfordshire PCT and the Better Healthcare Programme have committed to working in an open and transparent way. It is expected that all members of the Programme Board and Community Partnership Forum will be involved in evaluating the initial ideas to create a short-list. At this stage of the process ideas will not be published or circulated to a wider audience.

Shortlisted submissions will then be asked to develop their proposals further. It is expected that a workshop will be organised to allow the shortlisted applicant an opportunity to ask questions of various people involved with the programme including members of the Programme Board and the Community Partnership Board. As part of this process and a subsequent public consultation the ideas that have been worked up into proposals will be shared with the public.