When patients in critical care are very unwell, they can lose the ability to swallow safely. That can mean feeding tubes, longer stays and slower recovery.

Speech and Language Therapist Maria Papadaki and her team in Critical Care wanted to improve outcomes for these patients.

As part of her apprenticeship at our Trust, Maria led a trial of a small bedside device, the Phagenyx® System. It stimulates the throat to help restore the swallowing reflex. It takes just minutes to deliver and can be used at the bedside.

Improved swallowing means patients can have breathing and feeding tubes removed sooner, and there is less reliance on equipment and medication, supporting a quicker recovery and reducing spend.

For the 17 patients treated in the trial, the impact was clear. Typically, they returned to eating and drinking 20 days sooner, and their hospital stay was 21 days shorter.

Through her apprenticeship and wider work linked to this trial, Maria could track and better understand the finances. Looking at the cost of a critical care bed – over £2,000 per day - the team was able to calculate that the reduced lengths of stay resulted in a saving of around £300,000.

By focusing on delivering the best possible care, and understanding the finances of decisions made, Maria not only improved outcomes for her patient; she also helped us deliver better value for money for taxpayers.

When we celebrated our apprentices at the House of Commons last month, Maria was named Apprentice of the Year.

Congratulations to Maria on this great achievement, and to her team, the Critical Care Unit and the Procurement and Finance departments on the success of the trial.

The new financial year will be challenging, and we will have a strong focus on how we use our resources.

Stories like this show that improving patient care and using our money wisely can go hand in hand, no matter how big or small the amount.