South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) encourages innovation in every department. Especially if it helps improve patient experience. 

We want our staff to be creative and come up with new ideas. We want them to feel supported to do that. The Innovation Team helps support ideas that staff think will help them in their day-to-day work. 

Innovation could be a radical invention. Most of the time it’s something simple that has a big impact. 

As well as working with our staff, we work with companies too. 

If you have an idea of innovation you can contact the team on: 

Who is in the Innovation Team?

Our team includes: 

What innovations we already seen?

Fixing a dislocated shoulder usually means giving the patient medicine to help them feel sleepy or relaxed. This is sedation. Normally we do this in the resuscitation room, which is busy with more serious cases. Because of this, patients needing shoulder relocation often wait longer. 

The Shoulder Relocation Bench is a special piece of equipment that uses an adapted bench to move the shoulder back in place instead of using a resuscitation bed. This method has cut waiting times and improved patient experience, with less cost and lower risk from sedation. Dr. Mohammed and Dr. Philip Dowson, both emergency medicine consultants at Sunderland Royal Hospital, designed the bench to make care better for patients with shoulder dislocations. 

The bench has been tested and is now used in our Emergency Department. It also won the award for “Development of an Innovative Device or Technology” at the 2021 Bright Ideas in Health Awards and was shortlisted for “Project of the Year” at the 2022 BIONOW Awards.

To read the full story of the Shoulder Reduction Bench please click here.

The Rise and Shine Board Game was created to help older patients move more during their hospital stay. Many older people have problems with mobility, and this is a big issue across the country. The game uses cards that make players do simple physical movements to take part. This helps hospital patients and older people in care settings stay active. Moving more can improve health. It also makes patients feel happier while in hospital.

The idea and artwork for the game were created by Bob Olley. Bob is a well-known artist and sculptor from South Shields. He shared that hospital days can feel very long, and older patients often get bored and sit still for too long. He designed Rise and Shine to make the day more fun and active.

The game is being made by Focus Games, a company that creates games to improve health and social care. These games will be placed on hospital wards so patients can play and stay active.

To read the full story of the Rise and Shine Game please click here.

Head and neck cancer treatment can be hard on patients. The treatment often affects how they taste, chew, swallow, and make saliva. This can make eating and drinking less enjoyable. To help patients find ways to enjoy food again, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust worked with the University of Sunderland to create a cookbook.

To read the full story of the Head and Neck Cancer Cookbook please click here.

Dr. Saeed Ahmed, a kidney specialist at South Tyneside & Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, has helped create a Virtual Reality (VR) training system for kidney biopsies with EXR Education. 

A renal biopsy is a test where doctors take a very small piece of your kidney to look at under a microscope. This helps them find out what is wrong with your kidney and how to treat it. The doctor uses a special needle to remove the sample, and the procedure is usually done under local anesthesia so you don’t feel pain.

The goal is to make learning faster and give junior doctors more training options by using virtual reality and augmented reality technology.