Finding common ground: Bristol Health Partners Conference 2023

More than 100 delegates joined us for our annual conference on 17 October 2023 which, for the first time, was held at Trinity, Bristol. See photos from the day.

The conference was expertly chaired by broadcaster, activist and Bristol Health Partners public contributor Primrose Granville, and explored how to support diverse communities to design and deliver solutions to health and care challenges.

After an authentic Jamaican lunch experience, Breathing Fire Company warmed up the room, encouraging people on each table to find out what they had in common and what made them unique.

In a heartfelt welcome speech, our Director, Professor David Wynick, acknowledged how the system has been too slow to respond to the ambitions and needs of its diverse communities, emphasised the need to have difficult conversations to then create positive relationships, and shared his own experiences of some of these conversations.

Next, Board Chair, Maria Kane OBE, introduced presentations from three different Health Integration Teams (HITs). These looked at practical examples of working in partnership with ethnically diverse communities – including lessons learned and aspirations for the future. Speaking at this session were Isobel Jones, Rosa Hui, Zehra Haq and Anndeloris Chacon from the Dementia HIT, Professor Nikki Cotterill and Amira Hassan representing the Bladder and Bowel Confidence HIT, and Dr Tom Allport from the Supporting Healthy and Inclusive Neighbourhood Environments (SHINE) HIT.

Afterwards, delegates made their way upstairs into Trinity’s breath-taking Fyfe Hall for tea, coffee and networking. Fifteen Health Integration Teams had stalls, alongside exhibitors from NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West, Clinical Research Network (CRN) West of England, Health Innovation West of England, People in Health West of England, Nilaari and Caafi Health.

Finally, we wrapped up with our now customary ‘In Conversation’ session. This year, Julian Walker and Primrose were joined on stage by Huda Hajinur, Director of Caafi Health, and Roy Kareem who leads the Bright Green Future initiative. In a wide-ranging conversation, Huda and Roy spoke about their childhoods and experiences at school, how young people aren’t ‘all the same’, the importance of representation in research and of finding common ground.

We would like to thank all of our speakers, exhibitors and delegates for contributing to an inspiring afternoon.