Healios was delighted to sponsor and attend the Health Partnership Network (HPN) North event and have some really engaging and insightful conversations with stakeholders from across the healthcare ecosystem.
Our Business Development Director Matt Daniel and Strategic Marketing Director James Gill attended the event in Manchester and our presence was an invaluable opportunity to discuss how we can collaborate and showcase how we can be a solution to the challenges being faced in the short and long-term.
Here Matt and James reflect on the event and the key takeaways from the discussions they had…
Making a pitch
The HPN North event started on day one with a nerve wracking one minute ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch. Matt outlined how Healios, by delivering integrated clinical services supported by innovative technology, can better drive outcomes for patients and value for the NHS.
Matt says: “It was a great start as we were able to speak to everyone in the audience at once so everyone got to hear about Healios and the work we do.
“Off the back of that we had a couple of people come and speak to us who we hadn’t arranged to meet beforehand, which was great as we were keen to get in front of as many people as possible to see how we could support and collaborate.
“We then had a series of quick-fire meetings in 15 minute slots, which worked well as you had to identify the common ground really quickly, and more often than not there was.
“Throughout the day there were some thought provoking panel discussions and presentations. I really liked the focus on building trust in digital services, which is something we do really well.
“The networking dinner after the first day was a nice opportunity to continue some of the conversations we had started earlier, and build relationships with people in a bit more of an informal setting.
“We definitely came away with a better understanding of some of the challenges that the Health Innovation Networks (HINs), Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Trusts are wrestling with and I think the conversations we started at the event will enable us to be a meaningful part of the solution.”
Focused on solving problems
The event gave the Healios team the opportunity to connect with different customer groups from all different aspects of the NHS from Trust level to ICBs and HINs.
“It was invaluable to listen to the perspectives of these different customer groups and hear them all talking around the same challenges patients and the NHS face,” James says.
“For me the problem to solve was all about access to clinical care services (or the lack of), and how we can use technology to augment our clinical services to deliver for the NHS.
“What was also clear was the need for private providers to show sustainable care solutions, doing it in a way which yes, is innovative and solves the problem at ground level with a lack of patient access, but does it in a way that the NHS can sustainably continue to do so going forwards.
“And regardless of who or where the customer was representing and what function or part of the NHS, they all had that aligned focus upon driving access to sustainable clinical services”
Positive discussions
The Healios team came away from the event with some strong connections and opportunities to pursue, as well as some great insight on the current healthcare landscape and how we can meet the challenges being faced now and in the future.
Matt was grateful for the openness from those he spoke with about the issues being faced right now and he felt a definite interest in what Healios can bring to the table as partners.
He says: “We spoke with people who didn’t necessarily have mental health or ND in their job title, such as heads of digital or heads of transformation, and I wasn’t sure if they felt we would be too niche to be of interest to them as there were delegates there more from broader areas such as infrastructure, patient records etc.
“However, they definitely were interested and it came back really strongly that waiting lists remain a massive issue and they wanted to hear how we can help with that in the short term but they were also keen to know how we could support fixing this problem for good and where digital can come into that.
“The other thing high on people’s agenda was specifically mental health in children and young people and autism and ADHD so we were well placed to have those discussions about what Healios can offer and the positive outcomes we can deliver.”
Pushing against an open door
As well as the networking opportunities the panel discussions and talks raised some interesting points which resonated with the Healios team.
Matt says: “There was a conversation in the panel discussion about bringing people along the digital journey with you and making sure that you’re building trust all the way along so people know why you’re doing it and you’re being open about using digital tools.
“So it was interesting to hear people still talking about that acceptance and understanding as a barrier and one of the things for us to take away is that when you look at our satisfaction levels, we have such a high proportion of people coming through our service that really value that digitally delivered service and therefore we’re a really good fit for what’s needed right now.
“We’re a service using highly-skilled clinicians on the end of a video call which is something familiar to people and something they’re comfortable with. It feels like we’re pushing against an open door there.”
Healios and our private intermediary service Melios will be looking forward to meeting more of our customers and discussing new collaborations at the upcoming NHS ConfedExpo 2024 on June 12 and 13 and the REBA Wellbeing Congress 2024 on 20 June.
Let us know if you’re attending so the teams can make sure to connect with you during the events – contact us at [email protected]
Do you need to increase support for neurodevelopmental care or are you just interested in finding out more about how working with Healios could help support your service? Visit https://healios.org.uk/healthcare-organisations/ to find out more.