THE group in charge of Wyre Forest's £127 million health budget has won a national innovation award for a care home scheme.

Wyre Forest Clinical Commissioning Group's (CCG) project was a winner in the best example of breaking the mould in primary care category at the NHS Alliance Acorn Awards last month in London.

The initiative helps care homes, community staff and GPs work much closer together. The project aims to achieve this by streamlining services so care homes are managed by just one GP practice.

CCG bosses say offering care in this way frees up more time for GPs to spend working with residents in the care homes allocated to them.

This is supported by community nurses and pharmacy staff who are working alongside the practices and care homes, looking at ways of improving care and ensuring care home staff are aware of all the services available in Wyre Forest and how to access them.

Heather Macdonald, head of business development at the CCG, said: "I'm delighted that Wyre Forest CCG has won this prestigious award for innovation.

"The project has had a really positive impact from everyone involved. I'd like to thank everyone that has worked so hard to make this happen."

Rick Stern, NHS Alliance chief executive, said: "We had a lot of excellent entries for this year's Acorn Awards.

"The innovation award provides the opportunity for organisations to showcase how they are breaking the mould in primary care and for us, Wyre Forest CCG's entry was an outstanding example of this."