Long Term Conditions NHS Test Bed

Heywood Middleton and Rochdale Long Term Conditions NHS Test Bed

A service evaluation of implementation and impact

 The number of people living with a long term health condition is increasing. NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester are working with Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (HMR CCG)  to carry out a project to evaluate a new way of using technology to identify and support patients at risk of hospital admission due to specific long-term conditions such as heart failure, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Researchers wanted to find out what the public and patients across Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale thought of their project and Research for the Future were quickly able to connect them with the right people from their database of volunteers. Seven volunteers came to a small discussion group in late March 2018 and shared their opinions of the project with the researchers. Their views gave researchers some new ideas for taking the project forward: e.g. they were able to suggest other projects and researchers with whom this project team might want to connect with and other places where the findings could be shared other than academic and professional groups. All of the Research for the Future volunteers said they really enjoyed taking part in the discussion group and were really pleased to know that researchers and their local CCG were actively seeking their input to service development. All volunteers were keen to continue to help researchers and a follow up session with researchers is planned for later in the year. Working with Research for the Future was a positive experience all round!