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Building the evidence for safe obstetric emergency care during the pandemic

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic the Thiscovery team and colleagues at THIS Institute worked together - remotely and at speed - to support maternity professionals in developing new safety procedures. In doing so we also created a new way of working online to involve large numbers of people to design changes or improvements to the way healthcare is delivered.

Members
250+ members across the network as of November 2026: Elective Care 110+, Urgent and Emergency Care 80+, Mental Health 70+, all joining through a shared Welcome Space.
What can members do?
Members can join the networks that match their areas of work, ask peers across the region for examples and advice, and find shared resources and upcoming events in one place.
Impact
The community gives the region's LINs one place to recruit, share learning and ask peers for help between events, with day-to-day ownership held by NHS EOELIN’s own trained administrators.
Delivered on behalf of:

What we did

  • Ran a co-design workshop with the client before starting the build to agree the network's structure around three regional improvement priorities: Elective Care, Urgent and Emergency Care, and Mental Health.
  • Developed and tested a prototype before the final build.
  • Built each priority space with its own membership, discussion topics and tailored module set, plus a shared Welcome Space as the common entry point.
  • Trained NHS England staff to administer and moderate their communities, so content and membership decisions sit with the client.
  • Provide ongoing technical monitoring and support, with regular review meetings between both teams.

Key insights

1

Elective Care (110+ members) runs a Digital PIFU (Patient Initiated Follow-Up) workshop series, bringing clinical, operational, transformation and digital teams together to share early-adopter learning ahead of wider rollout.

2

Urgent and Emergency Care (80+ members) hosted a learning session on developing an integrated acute frailty service, led by a clinical lead from a partner trust.

3

Mental Health (70+ members) relaunched a Digital Mental Health Community of Practice and is gathering interest in a regional webinar on ambient voice technology in mental health and community settings.

4

Peer problem-solving across the region. Members use the Welcome Space to ask other trusts for examples of tools, pathways and service models they could adapt.

5

Joining up regional data and events. The space is used to share access to regional improvement data and to promote events such as National QI Week sessions.

Community in action

Rather than one general discussion forum, EOELIN mirrors how improvement work is organised in the region: by priority area, with a common space between the three areas. This lets each network grow its own membership and conversations while staying visible to the wider region.

Because the client's own administrators moderate and manage membership, NHS England has direct ownership of the space, while Thiscovery keeps it running smoothly behind the scenes.

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Jay Dean-Lewis

Insights Programme Developer
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