This month, we are shining the spotlight on a new Somerset-wide wound care strategy programme to improve the way we prevent, assess, and treat wounds, and to make sure patients get the best possible care, wherever they are seen.
This programme brings teams together across health and care services to release more time, reduce variation and improve outcomes for patients.
Why are we doing this?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen growing challenges in wound care across Somerset. Services and approaches can differ between areas, and this sometimes means patients don’t get care as early or consistently as they should.
There is also a strong national drive to improve wound care, alongside the government’s new 10-year health plan and three shifts – moving from treatment to prevention, acute to community and analogue to digital. NHS England has also introduced new standards through the National Wound Care Strategy, backed by NICE guidance and national evidence, highlighting the rising impact of wounds on patients, services, and resources.
Local feedback from system partners has also shown:
- Inconsistent approaches to care
- Incomplete assessments
- Long treatment periods without clear improvement.
Put simply, doing things the same way is no longer enough. We need a more joined-up, consistent approach that focuses on prevention, quality, and patient experience.
What is the aim of the programme?
The Wound Care Programme aims to work smarter together, releasing time for colleagues to care, while improving outcomes for patients.
Across Somerset, we aim to:
- Reduce the number of people living with chronic wounds
- Introduce standardised wound prevention, assessment, treatment, and monitoring
- Support care closer to home, wherever possible
- Empower patients to manage their own care with confidence
- Support our workforce with training and clear pathways to deliver high-quality, consistent care
- Use digital tools to improve communication, coordination and tracking of wound healing.
By September 2027, the ambition is to have a seamless, patient-centred wound care approach that improves quality of life and delivers safe, effective, and efficient care across the system.
What does this mean? – how will patients, colleagues, and services benefit?
The programme puts patient experience at the heart of everything we do, while also supporting our workforce and the wider system.
For patients:
- Care delivered closer to home, where appropriate
- Better joined up working between services
- More consistent, evidence-based care
- Faster healing and fewer complications.
For colleagues:
- Clearer pathways and expectations
- Better access to training and support
- More efficient assessments, freeing up time to care
- Improved confidence and satisfaction in wound care delivery.
For the wider Somerset healthcare system:
- Reduced variation and harm
- Better health outcomes
- More effective use of resources and reduced unwarranted costs.
Working in partnership
This is a system-wide programme, built on strong partnership working, including:
- Patients
- Primary care
- Acute and community services
- Social care
- Somerset ICB
- The voluntary sector
- Provider partners.
By designing solutions together, we hope to reduce duplication, improve continuity, and make wound care work better for everyone. This wide mix of clinical, professional, and corporate expertise across the trust is key to making the programme a success.
Putting patient experience at the heart of what we deliver
Patient experience is central to the programme, and we are keen to design care that is compassionate, inclusive, and truly centred around people’s needs and preferences. Four patient volunteers have now joined the improvement programme to share their experiences and ensure that the patient voice contributes to the development of wound care across Somerset.
In addition, and throughout the programme, we will be asking colleagues and patients to complete short surveys that will help us understand:
- What’s working well
- Where care can be improved
- Whether the programme is delivering the benefits we expect.
The feedback will directly inform benefits tracking and future improvements.
Interested in getting involved?
We’d love to hear from colleagues who want to be involved or find out more. Email: pmo@somersetft.nhs.uk
Whether you have experience in wound care, patient engagement, training, data or service improvement, there are lots of ways to contribute.
