About us
Bristol Health Partners is a strategic collaboration between the city region's universities, major health and care providers and commissioners, covering Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. These 11 organisations are part of Bristol Health Partners voluntarily, and we are funded by contributions from the partners.
As a membership organisation, we understand and serve the needs of our partners and the people living in our area, rather than the agenda of a distant funding body.
Our partnership includes commissioning and public health, which is rare among England's health partnerships. This broader membership means we do not focus solely on illness, but also address lifelong health and how to prevent illness in the first place.
An Academic Health Science Centre
Recognising our academic excellence and international expertise, on 1 April 2020 we were made an Academic Health Science Centre by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), NHS England and NHS Improvement. Read our application.
Academic Health Science Centres are "regional partnerships bringing together expertise from universities and NHS organisations. Working with local partners including local authorities and industry, they improve health and care services by translating early scientific research and discoveries into benefits for individual patients and local and national populations." (NHS England).
We are the first Academic Health Science Centre in England to develop a fully integrated relationship with its Integrated Care System. We provide the Research and Innovation Steering Group for Healthier Together, which is our local Integrated Care System.
Integrated Care Systems are “partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.” (NHS England).
We work with Healthier Together to prevent illness and disease, join up services more effectively, and better integrate research with innovation to ensure that people living in our area benefit from the best available evidence.
Our purpose
We exist to improve the health of those who live in and around Bristol, and to improve the delivery of the services on which they rely, and to act as a mechanism for change in our health and care community and our city region.
Our vision
We want people who live in and around Bristol to live healthier and more fulfilling lives, and experience the best possible care.
We want our area’s health and care system to be known for:
- equal and fair access, experience and outcomes for people in our city, rural and coastal communities
- excellence of the care it commissions and provides
- integration and joint working.
Our mission
We generate significant health gain and improvements in service delivery in the region by integrating, promoting and developing our strengths in health services, research, innovation and education.
Our objectives
We aim are to deliver identifiable improvements across our local health community in:
- patient care and public health outcomes
- equity of access, provision and outcome
- translation of research into health practice
and to provide joint planning and coordination, including:
- developing system-level projects such as the health data inventory project
- developing coherent responses as a community to national initiatives
How do we achieve this?
Our unique Health Integration Team (HIT) model
We work in a focussed, topic-specific way through our Health Integration Teams. They tackle health priorities by harnessing and translating the best research, innovation, care and education to make a difference to people's health. Our HITs must evaluate, involve patients and the public, and have a whole system approach. This pioneering approach to research, health service and public health integration can help solve seemingly intractable problems and ensure that the most successful ideas are spread.
Bringing the best people together
As a membership organisation that drives integration, our people are our strongest asset. We champion ambition and coherence, and provide a platform for people to work together across the health and care system. We bring together experts from the Bristol city region and further afield to tackle the challenges we face, support the priorities set by local leaders and drive change across our city region. Our Board, Research and Innovation Steering Group, and Health Integration Teams showcase the finest talent the Bristol city region's health and care community has to offer.
Maximising and integrating research and service delivery
Bristol has considerable health research strengths, and we help make the most of them through integrating academia, the health service, social care, public health, commissioning and the voluntary sector. We apply science to service delivery and improvement, so that change is more effective and likely to succeed. Involving patients and the public is essential to success, and the partnership empowers health professionals to make the most of opportunities to do this.
Our location
We focus on the people of the Bristol city region, which includes Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. We also aim to develop close links with other organisations in our wider region and neighbouring regions. But what works here will very likely work elsewhere: our work and research can and should have national and international impact.
