Benchmark your OPAT pathways: enhance your knowledge, share best practice and discover strategies to develop your service in a one-day immersive event
Book your place to see what other services and professionals across the United Kingdom do and learn from their first-hand experiences. Benefit an impressive, interactive and informative networking forum which will enable you to benchmark your service, improve communication and referrals and standardise practice.
Sponsored by:

6 hours Continuing Professional Development: what you will learn
Attend this online course with convenience in mind
With thanks to our sponsor
Invitation to sponsor
9:00 |
Join, tech support and opportunity to network in breakout rooms
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9:30 |
Chair’s opening remarks and introductions
Melissa Franklin, Clinical Educator for Intravenous Therapy, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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Establishing referral pathways for maximum buy-in | |
9:40 |
Exploring strategies to increase referrals to maximise capacity in your OPAT service
Vikki Connell, Lead Pharmacy Technician for Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) and OPAT, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
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10:10 |
Questions and answers with your speakers
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10:20 |
Interactive discussion: How to increase referrals to your OPAT service
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10:40 |
Feedback on interactive discussion: How to increase referrals to your OPAT service
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10:50 |
Sponsorship presentation with Baxter
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11:00 |
Sponsorship presentation opportunity
Please contact Vanessa Pearce for more information. Vanessa.Pearce@sbk-healthcare.co.uk or 01732 897788
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11:10 |
Meet the sponsors
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11:20 |
Screen break
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Standardising use of Vascular Access Devices (VAD) | |
11:30 |
Improving infection prevention and enhanced maintenance of VAD
Andrew Barton, Nurse Consultant, Chair of the National Infusion and Vascular Access Society (NIVAS) Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
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12:00 |
Optimising Vascular Access Delivery lines: complications and management strategies
Jayne Stevenson, COPAT Specialist Nurse Practitioner, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
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12:30 |
Questions and answers with your speakers
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12:40 |
Lunch break
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1:10 |
Interactive discussion: Building a successful business case for developing your OPAT service
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1:30 |
Feedback on interactive discussion: Building a successful business case for developing your OPAT service
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Establishing an elastomeric device pathway | |
1:40 |
Utilising elastomeric devices to reduce hospital time and get patients home faster
Julie Statham, OPAT Team Manager and Pharmacist Advanced Clinical Practitioner, and Rachel Kenion, Advanced Clinical Practitioner OPAT, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust
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Achieving enhanced self-administration competency | |
2:10 |
Developing self-administration training to increase competency and capacity
Lyndsay Rignall, Matron, Intermediate Care Team, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
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2:40 |
Questions and answers with your speakers
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2:50 |
Interactive discussion: Incorporating elastomeric devices into your OPAT service
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3:10 |
Feedback on interactive discussion: Incorporating elastomeric devices into your OPAT service
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3:20 |
Screen break
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Integrating with virtual wards | |
3:30 |
Interactive discussion: Implementing virtual wards to support your OPAT team
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3:50 |
Feedback on interactive discussion: Implementing virtual wards to support your OPAT team
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4:00 |
Case study: How to incorporate virtual wards into your OPAT service
Jennifer Musgrave, Ward Manager, Acute Hospital at Home, Northern Services, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
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4:30 |
Questions and answers with your speakers
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4:40 |
Chairs’ closing remarks and close of day
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Your speaker line-up:
Vikki Connell is the lead pharmacy technician for AMS and OPAT at the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust in Staffordshire. After working 15 years in community pharmacy as a pharmacy technician, Vikki made the move into the secondary care field in 2018, working as a pharmacy technician. She gained her accreditation for Checking (ACT) qualification and then became a Medicines Management Pharmacy Technician (MMT). Vikki moved into her current position in 2022, where she has strived for the improvement of OPAT services within her Trust and works closely with the OPAT CNSs to help deliver the best service possible to their patients. They have initiated several workstreams to make these improvements and are always striving to do better for their patients. They are still working on improving the service but also want to share their experiences with others to help grow OPAT services around the Country.
Andrew is the founder and lead nurse Consultant for the Hospitals’ Intravenous and Vascular Access Services (IVAS) unit where he manages a large team of vascular access specialist nurses delivering bring a 7-day service, infusion specialist staff who provide same day IV infusions and other IV therapies and home infection management nurses.
Andrew is expert in placing ports and renal catheters as well as PICCs and places catheters in adults and paediatrics.
His specialist interest is vascular access technology and is an early adopter of new concepts technology including infrared vein location, biphasic vein amplification, PICC placement and catheter securement.
Andrew is an experienced national and international speaker and has published extensively in scientific and research journals in the field of vascular access and IV therapy.
He is the chair of NIVAS, the national infusion and vascular access society of the UK. He is a board member of MEDUSA the national electronic injectable medicines guide, and a global committee member of the World Congress of Vascular Access (WoCoVA). He is an expert advisor for the health technologies evaluation program for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and an independent consultant for the UK MHRA. (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and for the Health Technology Wales (HTW), a government funded, but independent, health technology assessment organisation
In 2022 he published The Benefits of a Nursing Led Vascular Access Service Team: A White Paper to outline a standardised structure and approach for the NHS to deliver vascular access services in every hospital and in 2024 launched the UK National Extravasation and infiltration toolkit.
In 2023 Andrew was a finalist in the HSJ Clinical Leader of the year and the Nursing Times Nurse of the year.
Lyndsay Rignall works for the Intermediate Care Team at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The Community Rapid Response & Intermediate Care Team operates as a Virtual Ward across the county, managing patients with sub-acute conditions to aid their recovery from illness or injury within their own homes by preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and reducing length of hospital stay.
Expected attendees
Past attendee feedback
Hear how attendees benefited from an educational day of networking and shared examples of great practice:
‘Thank you, I appreciate the work put in - it shows’
Barts Health NHS Trust, Progressing your OPAT & IV Therapy Service, 2024
‘Very well executed’
Western Health and Social Care Trust, Progressing your OPAT & IV Therapy Service, 2024
‘Very informative. Relating to practice and case studies helpful’
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Progressing your OPAT & IV Therapy Service, 2024
‘Great day, enjoyed and gained a lot from partaking’
Guy’s St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Progressing your OPAT & IV Therapy Service, 2024
‘Very informative and recommended for OPAT and vascular access teams’
North East London NHS Foundation Trust, OPAT & IV National Networking Forum, 2022
‘Well organised, varied and interesting. Lots of things to take back to our team’
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, OPAT & IV National Networking Forum, 2022
‘Good learning and networking'
Birmingham Community Health Care NHS Foundation Trust, OPAT & IV National Networking Forum, 2022
With thanks to our sponsor
Why sponsor?
Our role at SBK Healthcare is to bring industry together with healthcare professionals so that you can educate and inform your audience. These events offering dedicated presentation, Q&A, networking and discussion time, each sponsor will be full immersed into the event and able to effectively engage with your NHS audience.
Interested in having your own event, managed by us?
SBK Healthcare also provides in-house forums. Working closely with you as the client we can research, produce, market and deliver the conference or online forum that best suits the audience and meets your goals.