2025 Conference is biggest ever for Bristol Health Partners

We held our biggest ever Bristol Health Partners Conference on Wednesday 22 October 2025. See photos from the day.

More than 200 partners and delegates joined us at Bristol’s science centre, We the Curious. For  the first time, we also welcomed partners from institutions in Denmark and Norway, as well as from King’s Health Partners in London. 

During a stimulating day of quickfire talks, Q&As and networking, delegates shared what it’s like to work with us to improve health and care, and explored opportunities to collaborate with each other. 

Thank you to HITs for inspiring us!

Introduced by Professor David Wynick, speakers from four Health Integration Teams (HITs) presented their experiences of enabling change – including successes, challenges and lessons learned – and took audience questions:

• Emma Richards and Claire Angell from Stroke HIT talked about how sharing lived experience was vital to streamlining the local stroke treatment and recovery pathway.
• Subitha Baghirathan and David Wynick (Chronic Pain HIT) explored how certain population groups experience clinical care differently or not at all, and the potential for pain management programmes to improve the lives of those living with pain.
• Matt Wilson presented progress made by Common Ambition Bristol – a Sexual Health (SHIP) HIT-supported community programme to improve HIV diagnosis and reduce stigma.
• Drug and Alcohol HIT representatives (Emma Griffith, Justine Keeble, Rebecca Halsey, Stephen Budd and Tania Smith) explored No Wrong Door Anymore, to help service users with mental health and substance use issues get the support they need.

Thank you to our Chair, guest speakers and performers

Maria Kane OBE, Chair of the Bristol NHS Group and current Bristol Health Partners Chair, welcomed delegates to Bristol.

Dr Claus Brøckner Nielsen, Chief Medical Officer, Regional Hospital Central Jutland, guided delegates through the opportunities and challenges of Danish health and care reform.

After lunch, members of Bristol’s Rising Voices Recovery Choir performed three songs a cappella – delegates gave them a standing ovation!

Our partnership’s own Connie Shiridzinomwa talked about capturing demographic information about research participants as a baseline to track whether programmes to increase diversity in research are working.

Dr Jo Williams and Christina Gray from Bristol City Council’s public health team examined how research is embedded into local public health practice via our health partnership.

To conclude, Professor Irene Higginson and Dr Wendy Prentice from King’s College London and King’s College Hospital respectively, gave a wide-ranging talk, covering frugal innovation, inequity of access to healthcare, and the multi-disciplinary approach of the King’s Better Health and Care Hub.

We would also like to thank our public partner and Conference Chair, Primrose Granville, for anchoring the event with typical warmth and aplomb.

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Day 2: Recommendations for success in academic health partnerships

Our main Conference was followed by a smaller workshop on Thursday 23 October.

Around 40 delegates from Bristol Health Partners, King’s Health Partners and counterparts from orgainsations in Denmark and Norway, came together to discuss and dissect exactly what makes a health partnership successful.

The conversation was the sequel to an initial workshop held between partner organisations at Aarhus University in 2024.

Based on recommendations from these two workshops, a paper will be produced to share this learning with academic health partnerships internationally.