Three health projects designed to improve patient care have beaten off stiff competition to secure innovation funding.

The NHS Bradford and Airedale projects have been successful in bids to the Yorkshire and Humber Innovation Fund.

The fund was set up by the Department of Health to encourage innovation and enable the spread of best practice.

Working in partnership with NHS trusts, NHS Bradford and Airedale was successful in three out of six in the latest round of innovation fund approvals.

The winning bids include two projects using new technology to save patients visiting hospital unnecessarily, and one to improve patients’ experience of end-of-life care.

The projects are: * The Bradford chronic kidney disease electronic advice service (CKDEAS) or econsults * Telewound management, which uses technology to enable a photograph along with a written summary of a patient (20 per cent of all chronic wound cases occur in care homes) to be taken by a community nurse and the electronic data sent to a wound expert in hospital so they can determine how a patient is best treated. This project is the concept of two renowned wound care clinicians Kath Vowden and Brenda King and will be led by them * Improving end-of-life care for patients and families by developing a regional-wide approach to ‘do not attempt resuscitation’.

Dr John Connolly, a GP and technical lead at NHS Bradford and Airedale and co-designer of the CKDEAS project, said: “We are delighted to receive a share of these funds, especially as 100 other bids from across the region were not successful. Our success was because our project could be adapted widely across other local health communities.

“Our new service will reduce unnecessary secondary care referrals for renal patients.

“Instead of the GP sending a letter to the hospital consultant, the information is sent securely through an electronic system.

“The consultant can then view the full patient record and perform a detailed and efficient review without the patients having to visit hospital, so reducing clinic visits and freeing up resources for patients who need them most.”

Simon Morritt, chief executive for NHS Bradford and Airedale, said: “I’m proud of the achievements of all the staff who submitted these innovative ideas.

“This fund is a great opportunity for staff to showcase their talents and ideas, and, most importantly, will help make a difference to patients’ lives by improving the quality and value of NHS services.”