Celebrating the NHS's 74th Birthday

Today is the NHS’s 74th Birthday, an opportunity to say thank you to our NHS staff and celebrate what makes it great.

I lead the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), a collaboration committed to getting the best new innovations to patients faster and today I am delighted to celebrate another extraordinary NHS innovation milestone.

As a result of?the AAC’s support today cancer patients on the Isle of Wight will be the first in the world to benefit from chemotherapy delivered by drone, as part of a new trial that will see patients on the island receive lifesaving treatment on the same day.

The achievement is remarkable, the way it was achieved is a testament?to the AAC’s priorities. We support the NHS to innovate by:

1. increasing the scale, diversity and speed of research so that the NHS has the clinical evidence that reflects the population, in turn making it easier to adopt innovations that benefit all.
2. supporting programmes that help the NHS workforce to develop, evaluate and drive innovation on the front line. The founder of the company that developed the drone was an NHS worker we supported.
3. working to increase uptake of NICE approved innovations from medicines, diagnostics, medical devices and digital products.
4. signalling to researchers, funders, innovators and industry what the NHS needs while also systematically searching for new solutions to high priority areas of need.
5. negotiating great deals at scale that support rapid roll out of the most promising innovations.

Access our support by visiting the NHS Innovation Service or contact your local Academic Health Science Networks.