Most NHS Scotland staff agree ‘innovation must be at the heart of improving NHS Scotland services’, according to new research, as many say they want to contribute to new ways of working to enhance staff and patient experiences.

InnoScot Health commissioned research reveals that 90% of NHS Scotland staff surveyed think innovation is essential to improve services and tackle pandemic backlogs.

The survey, conducted by Ashbrook Research shows that a majority of the 602 healthcare worker respondents want to contribute to driving ground-breaking ideas into reality and practice.

Conducted by Ashbrook Research, a Glasgow-based research and consultancy group, the survey reveals that 90% of NHS Scotland staff responding think innovation is essential to improve services and help tackle pandemic backlogs.

Executive Chair of InnoScot Health, Graham Watson says:

“Over the past 20 years, InnoScot Health has worked with nurses, surgeons, paramedics and many more. A strong pipeline of new ideas has been delivered into service through our enduring commitment to supporting innovation. The importance which staff clearly place on the role of innovation within the NHS is hugely encouraging.”

On one or more occasion, 71% of healthcare workers report having offered ideas on how to enhance the delivery of healthcare in NHS Scotland.

Scotland’s Chief Scientist for Health, Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, says:

“The challenges facing NHS Scotland are well reported, however as we work towards the modernisation of NHS Scotland, this survey makes it clear that staff are a major part of the solution.

“It shows that there is an undoubted desire to innovate from within in order to improve outcomes for both patients and those working within health and social care. It underlines our belief that the NHS is a great driver of innovation – dedicated, hard-working staff understand the issues and how we can help solve them.”

Two thirds of all staff responding consider themselves to be “innovators to some extent”, saying they have ideas to improve NHS Scotland.

For staff having worked less than 5 years in NHS Scotland, 61% say they would express an idea for improving services – increasing to 78% of those having worked 20 years or more in NHS Scotland.

One in six of the NHS Scotland staff who responded say they considered themselves to be innovators to a “great extent.”

Professor Dominiczak adds that leaders across the Scottish government and NHS must support these staff and encourage more collaborative working to ensure novel solutions are adopted and brought into practice promptly:

“As leaders, I believe that to rise to current challenges – and look beyond them too – we need to support and encourage fresh NHS ideas, while strengthening partnerships across the sector. More and better collaboration, with targeted and expert support, will help get innovation into patients’ hands quicker.

“This survey shows that now is absolutely the right time to do that; to really utilise the vast enthusiasm, talent and depth of healthcare expertise that we have here in Scotland, take the workforce’s most transformative, innovative ideas and accelerate their development and ultimate adoption back into the NHS.”

InnoScot Health reports that 98% of staff responding are motivated to contribute to innovation to improve wellbeing of themselves and their colleagues.

‘Making a difference to patients’ and to ‘drive efficiency’ are, according to 97% and 95% of respondents  respectively, also important motivators.

While not one of the three main motivations identified by staff, NHS Scotland ‘innovators’ can share in the revenue generated from successful innovations. This survey found that those who have worked in the NHS for more than 20 years are the least likely to identify money as a significant factor to proposing an idea.

InnoScot Health’s Executive Chair, Graham Watson, adds that NHS Scotland has arrived at a “key juncture” where the need to embrace innovation is vital:

“Our survey has illuminated a positive picture of support for transformative NHS-led innovation.

“We have now arrived at a key juncture for NHS Scotland amid significant winter challenges – and it must be considered an opportune time to leverage the promise of pandemic-inspired new ways of working.

“The NHS workforce message is clear – we can and want to innovate at this pivotal time for healthcare.”

Read more:  Adopting innovation can be ‘Once for Scotland’; Scots women at the forefront of medical sciences; NHS Scotland forms landmark partnership; New treatment for rare genetic condition approved

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