Patients and local residents were at the forefront of conversations this week as we brought together health and care colleagues from across our communities and sectors for an engagement event.

The event, ‘The best bed is my bed’, saw partners from across health, social care, voluntary and community sectors discuss new ways of working together to reduce avoidable hospital admissions.

Hosted by BHRUT and facilitated by Care City, conversations focused on  how collectively we can improve patient’s health and wellbeing and reduce waiting times across our hospitals.

Discussions around the impact of avoidable admissions and looking at current issues led to ideas around new ways of together and looking and planning ahead.

Improving access to primary and community care, improving communication and patient access to information, improving early intervention and changing people’s behaviours across Barking, Havering and Redbridge were just some of the topics and methods discussed.

Attendees also heard from ‘lightning talkers’ about other methods of how we can work differently for our patients and residents.

Speakers included colleagues from Barking and Dagenham Council; a pioneering Community Medicine Service called PRU which brings the Emergency Department to the patient across north east London, and companies that are already helping make great progress keeping people well and in their own homes safely for as long as they can , right across the NHS.

Director of Strategy and Partnerships at BHRUT, Ann Hepworth also spoke about the importance of having these conversations and collaborative working across our communities.

She said: “It was great hearing, seeing and being involved in these discussions about how we can work even better together for our local residents.

“As local health providers and professionals, we have a commitment to our patients and I’m really excited to see all of these ideas come to life. I want to thank all the colleagues from BHRUT and Care City who helped make this happen.”