Annual Review 2021-22: Foreword from Maria Kane

As I begin my tenure as Chair of Bristol Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre, I can look back over the last year and really appreciate how much progress we have made. This has been made much more difficult as the pandemic has continued to stretch and test our health and care system. Despite this challenging climate, Bristol Health Partners has been able to continue to deliver so much.

We have had our best ever year in terms of securing funding for research and service delivery. Highlights include grants from NHS Charities Together, which were awarded through working with our two local hospital charities, and funding from the Ageing Well programme which will transform services in the region for older people.

To fully realise our ambitions as an Academic Health Science Centre, we need to ensure that the evidence from the outstanding research we produce translates into real change. We have taken a step closer to achieving this by beginning to work formally with the new Healthier Together Integrated Care System. Our Research and Innovation Steering Group aims to ensure the academic research, implementation and evaluation activities we undertake – through our Health Integration Teams and more widely – are embedded within the system and support its work.

Great outcomes are most often achieved through working together. Our region is already known for its research expertise and innovation, and Bristol Health Partners offers an effective, and I think unequalled, way to collaborate to achieve better health outcomes for people in the region and tackle the health inequalities they face.

I’m looking forward to what the next year brings.