20 June 2023

CNWL’s Sexual Health Service in North Central London has been shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety Award for its Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Programme. The award falls under the category of Early-Stage Patient Safety Innovation of the Year.

The awards organisers noted that a record-breaking 515 entries were received for the HSJ Patient Safety Awards 2023, with 209 organisations, projects and individuals making it to the final shortlist.

Following a thorough judging process, CNWL’s North Central London (NCL) PrEP Programme was shortlisted, ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held later this year in Manchester in September.  The Awards are a highlight of the HSJ’s annual 2-day Patient Safety Congress (taking place on 18 & 19 September), where delegates working at the forefront of safety, quality and clinical excellence will come together to join in with open and honest discussions about the current reality of safety.

At this first stage of judging, the shortlist was set against three clear criteria; clinical and specialist excellence; enacting organisation-wide change and service/system innovation.

The NCL PrEP Programme was established in November 2021 to support the routine rollout of HIV PrEP on the NHS in Barnet, Camden, Haringey and Islington. The programme adopted a health-inequities-informed approach that prioritises target audiences on the basis of PrEP need (the gap between new HIV transmission risk and PrEP uptake among a given demographic), adopting a bespoke approach to PrEP promotion for each group. The programme also works on the basis of patient involvement principles, with materials and service design co-produced with staff and patients. Programme activities have included a new ‘Be PrEPared’ PrEP promotion campaign designed with and for young gay and bi men and gay and bi men of colour; ongoing community outreach and PrEP promotion; a ‘PrEP for Black Africans’ engagement exercise run with Umoja Health Forum & Embrace UK; and ensuring that patient voices have been at the heart of the development of CNWL’s PrEP service.

Dominic Reilly, CNWL's PrEP Programme Lead, said 

“I’m really pleased our PrEP Programme has been shortlisted for this award, as it gives us the opportunity to highlight an approach to health promotion that is targeted, bespoke, and always informed by patient perspectives. Our success to date in growing our PrEP patient cohort reflects the support the work has received from the wider sexual health services at CNWL and the enthusiastic efforts of our PrEP Community Outreach Team.”

The full list of finalists for the 2023 HSJ Patient Safety Awards can be found at https://awards.patientsafetycongress.co.uk/shortlist-2023.

Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Manchester Central, on 18 September  2023.