Husband and wife team to lead innovations in wound care

Abstract

Nurses will be heavily involved in a Department of Health investigation into alleged abuse of patients by the late broadcaster Jimmy Savile. Several investigations begin this month and will cover hospitals that Savile visited frequently as a volunteer, fundraiser or both. The teams will look at events from the 1960s to 2011, when Savile died. The investigation team at Leeds Infirmary includes NHS North of England deputy chief nurse David Thompson, who has worked in the NHS for 37 years, and former nurse Maggie Boyle, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It will be led by Sue Proctor, former chief nurse at Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority. Another investigation will begin later this month into abuse at Broadmoor. More than 100 former staff employed at the high-security A wound care unit set up by a husband and wife team 20 years ago will become a national centre for wound management prevention and treatment. The Bradford Royal Infirmary-based service, which was set up by nurse consultant Kath Vowden and surgeon husband Peter Vowden, will be responsible for finding out from patients how wound care products can be improved. The ideas will then be researched and developed by experts within the wound care industry. Starting this month, it will become one of eight Healthcare Technology Cooperatives and will receive £800,000 to develop new care products. ‘At the moment, a new idea takes a long time to get to patients because of the amount of research that is required,’ said Ms Vowden. ‘Becoming the centre for innovation will help us develop new products more quickly.’ Husband and wife team to lead innovations in wound care