02 November 2007
The Department of Health is to pilot community-based academic health centres as part of its attempts to improve the standard of NHS care.
The new centres will aim to forge closer ties between the NHS and local academic institutes to ensure research is translated into clinical practice. The move comes as the DoH accepted last week's report from its high-level group on clinical effectiveness.
The group was set up in 2005 after chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson highlighted variations in clinical practice that wasted resources and led to poor patient care.
Sir John Tooke, who led the group, said there was no single solution that would address such variations but he insisted greater co-ordination of efforts to improve patient care at national and local level were needed.
The new academic centres will focus on improving outcomes for patients. The DoH will set aside up to £50m for the pilot phase, with each centre getting between £5m and £10m.
The new Health Innovation Council, announced by health minister Lord Darzi in his interim report into the future of the NHS, will co-ordinate national programmes.
PFnov2007
