King's Health Partners

King’s Health Partners aims to:

• Make new healthcare discoveries available to patients sooner
• Offer pioneering treatments and advanced therapies to people living in London and beyond
• Provide the best possible patient care through enhanced training for healthcare workers

King’s Health Partners programmes and projects include:

• Innovation: translating the latest research into new healthcare innovations to deliver a world-class service to patients
• Mind & Body: integrating mental and physical healthcare to enhance patient wellbeing
• Value Based Healthcare: delivering excellent healthcare while safeguarding stretched NHS resources

King’s Health Partners Institute’s programme is bringing together the collective expertise of King’s Health Partners across cardiovascular, women and children’s health, neurosciences, haematology, and diabetes, obesity and endocrinology.

These priorities have been selected to map King’s Health Partners’ combined strengths against the specific healthcare needs of local communities.

INTEGRATED CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH LONG-TERM HEALTH CONDITIONS

A collaboration between King’s Health Partners and Lambeth and Southwark NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups aims to improve care for patients with long-term health conditions.

3 Dimensions for Long-Term Conditions (3DLC) integrates medical, psychological and social care for patients living with multiple health conditions such as heart failure, diabetes or mental health challenges.

Evidence shows that common mental health disorders are more frequent in people with long-term conditions and that the combination of physical and mental health problems makes treatment more complex. The 3DLC service aims to address this by providing patients with integrated support from a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a community support worker to enhance their wellbeing and quality of life.

Speaking about the challenges he faces, Shawn Collick, a patient with multiple health conditions, said, ‘It’s been quite a bit to get used to, especially with the mounting medication. Everything was a big struggle and mentally I was so confused, I just didn’t know where to turn. Through sitting down and [3DLC] teaching me how to think through my emotions and my thoughts… I could see that yes, I can actually do more than I think I can do.’

PIONEERING CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH

King’s Health Partners is bringing together collective clinical, research and educational expertise to deliver world-class cardiovascular healthcare for London.

World-champion powerlifter, 68-year-old Alan Luker, credits a pioneering cardiovascular research study with saving his life. Alan had a heart attack in 2001 and was invited to join a clinical trial at St Thomas’ Hospital after he had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted in December 2013. The REVascularisation for Ischaemic VEntricular Dysfunction (REVIVED) study fits patients with a stent – a small tube – in their blocked artery to explore whether people with coronary artery

disease benefit from this treatment. The research study could transform the lives of thousands of Londoners suffering heart defects and benefit patients across the UK and around the world, if it is found that stents help people with the condition. Alan said, ‘Without the REVIVED study I believe I would be dead by now. I’m convinced that the combination of the stent and defibrillator has given me a quality of life I couldn’t have dreamed of. Words can’t describe how much I owe the team at St Thomas’ behind the study. They have given me life and time with my wife Julie, family and friends.’

JOINING TOGETHER TO SERVE LONDON COMMUNITIES

A team of neuro-navigators, specially trained therapists who support patients in south-east London with debilitating neurological conditions and brain injuries, have been brought together by King’s Health Partners. The holistic care service aims to enhance patient recovery, enabling faster rehabilitation, delivering ongoing care closer to home and supporting patients as they return to work.

Patients treated by the service include those with acquired brain injury, progressive neurological conditions and spinal cord injuries. They have specific and challenging needs so benefit from ‘whole-person mind and body care’, according to Dr Ranga Rao, Clinical Director of Psychological Medicine and Integrated Care at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

PJ Watson, 26, suffered a brain injury following a car accident in May 2016 and was in a coma for six weeks. He was supported by the neuro-navigators from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Talking about the support he received, PJ’s mother, Cherie Jordan, said, ‘When PJ got home he wasn’t keen to go back to another rehabilitation centre but the neuro-navigator from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust persevered. She knew he needed more input from the occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists.’