About this section
This part of the Future Hospital Journal is where you will find regular overview updates on progress made by the Future Hospital Programme of the Royal College of Physicians, together with its partners, in realising the vision of the Future Hospital Commission. We very much welcome your feedback. If you have any comments, or would like to be involved in the work of the Programme, please contact futurehospital{at}rcplondon.ac.uk.
Future Hospital development sites
June 2016 marked the half-way point for the first phase of the Future Hospital development sites in Betsi Cadwaladr, Mid Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Worthing. To coincide with the 18 months since their collaboration with the Future Hospital Programme (FHP) began, the four sites were invited to a learning event hosted by the FHP team at Pinderfields Hospital, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
In July, the first learning event for the second phase development sites was held at Woking Community Hospital in Surrey. At this event, the teams reflected on and shared the successes and challenges of implementing different ways of working. Both events provided an opportunity for clinicians, managers and patients to share learning and, crucially, hear the patient's perspective through their stories and experiences of using services.
Applying effective quality improvement methodology within busy clinical services was a key theme for both of these learning events. With the support of the FHP, each team is seeking to evaluate the impact and sustainability of changes to clinical pathways in relation to patient experience, outcomes and resource use.
A highlight of 2016 was the joint learning event in September, which saw all eight sights meeting for the first time at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). The unique pairing of phase 1 and phase 2 presentations highlighted and explored areas of common interest across the varied sites. The day provided the multidisciplinary teams with the opportunity to network, share learning and inspire one another in their quality and service improvement journey.
North West Paediatric Allergy Network: patient involvement
Partners Network
Through the Partners Network, the FHP continues to share the lessons learned by the programme and the Future Hospital development sites (Fig 1). The growing network of peers, experts, academics, organisations and patients, who are key supporters of the Future Hospital vision, receive a monthly newsletter that collates and spreads good practice and fosters examples of system-wide improvement in the care of medical patients.
Professor Frank Joseph attends the Partners Network quality improvement seminar at the Royal College of Physicians.
Insights from the Partners Network
The Partners Network continues to collect and publish a series of blogs and learning resources on the RCP website, which align to the key recommendations of the Future Hospital Commission. Among the resources:
Marc Elliott, senior principle researcher, and Rebecca Anhang Price, senior policy researcher, from RAND Corporation debunk seven common myths about patient experience surveys.
Dr Penny Newman, medical director at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust, and Dr Andrew McDowell, psychologist and director of The Performance Coach, explain how health coaching can help enable personalised care.
Simon Denegri, national director for patients and the public at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and chair for INVOLVE, puts forward his case for making health research opportunities more visible in the NHS.
To join the Partners Network and receive our monthly newsletter, visit www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-partners-network.
Chief registrar pilot project
A key recommendation in the Future Hospital Commission report was to harness the expertise of experienced junior doctors in the delivery of high-quality, safe patient care. As a result, the FHP is piloting the role of chief registrar to determine the skills, protected time and training needed to support this new leadership position; this project is led by Dr Gerrard Phillips, RCP vice president for education and training.
The scheme recognises the insights doctors in training have in relation to rotas, out-of-hours cover, handover and digital technologies. Acting as a bridge between the junior doctor workforce, consultants, medical directors and senior managers, the chief registrars are responsible for communicating junior doctors’ ideas for innovation and improvement. Funding for the training and development programme has been awarded by the RCP Board of Trustees and discussions are ongoing with Health Education England (HEE) and the Health Foundation to provide further support.
Evaluating a new senior leadership position
The full cohort of 20 chief registrars commenced their modular training programme (6 months), created in collaboration with the RCP Education Department and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM), this month. Training in quality improvement is being provided to the chief registrars to enable them to lead and mentor peers to deliver quality improvement projects within their acute trusts. Another important element of the training programme is giving the chief registrars the opportunity to learn ‘soft’ leadership skills.
With the support of a newly appointed clinical officer, the FHP will be evaluating the training programme and the impact of the chief registrar role on the medical workforce and patient care. In addition, The University of Birmingham will also be conducting a formal evaluation of the pilot.
Quality improvement seminar
Tell us your story
Marie Gilhooly's case study, Reducing acute kidney injury through fluid management, details how her team significantly reduced the occurrence of acute kidney injury at Papworth Hospital through the management of fluids for adults following cardiothoracic procedures. The service won the Cardiac Care Award at the Health Service Journal Provider Awards in July.
The complete library of stories can be found in our online library on the RCP website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-your-stories
If you'd like to tell us your story, contact the FHP team at futurehospital{at}rcplondon.ac.uk
- © Royal College of Physicians 2016. All rights reserved.
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