Who can help? - Peninsula

We have the ambition of creating an authentic improvement culture at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHNT). That really means getting ideas and actions from wards, theatres, administrative areas, patients and service users, not just from management. To encourage this we are working on three fundamental areas:

Encouraging and supporting good daily team reviews and behaviour
Providing coaches and mentors who can help with team reviews, improvement skill sand leadership through the Quality Faculty
Providing a standard improvement approach which can be easily followed, celebrating and sharing improvement projects across the Trust

PHNT have hosted Health Education South West (Peninsula) regional seminars to provide training in quality improvement methodology and supports an ongoing QI programme at Masters and Foundation level.

There are a number of active projects in the PHNT QI project bank.

QI Champions:

Dr David Adams

Dr Matt Hill

Dr Richard Berrisford

Dr Paul McArdle

Foundation Contact:

Linda Atkinson-Lewis

(Foundation Programme Manager)

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust:

Please contact the QI Champion for further information of QI activity at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.

QI Champions:

Juan Graterol

Caolan Roberson

Foundation Contacts:

Julie Blundell

(F1 Foundation Programme Director)

Chris Williams

(F2 Foundation Programme Director)

Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust:

A trainee led QI Academy was launched in Exeter under the leadership of the Medical Education Department. A Faculty was established consisting of enthusiastic trainees, senior clinicians and the Trust Service and Development team. Exeter QIA organized a launch event early in the academic year to attract the new cohort of Junior Doctors and to encourage them to identify areas which required improvement.

Sustainability of the Exeter QIA is ensured by retaining it under the leadership of the DME to provide continuity as trainees rotate.

A regional QI conference was organized to showcase the results of the local and regional projects. Projects presented included:

Improved communication with Phlebotomists to minimise delays in taking blood for urgent tests.
Drs Toolbox - to improve handover of information when trainees rotate.
Improved identification of the appropriate blood containers for different tests.
A new fluid and drainage chart for surgical patients to improve fluid balance assessment.
Improving the care of vascular access devices by producing a training video.
Management of sepsis in the Emergency Department.
Redesign of the urinalysis service to improve the time to diagnosis and treatment.

The presentations and posters from the conference are available on the South West Academic Health Science Network ( SWAHSN) website.

Exeter QIA is continuing to monitor the progress of projects that are ongoing and a launch took place in September 2014 for the new cohort of trainees.

QI Champions:

Mr Rob Bethune

Dr Nadine Dyar

Foundation Contacts:

Gavin Lloyd

(F2 Foundation Programme Director)

Chris Mulgrew

(F1 Foundation Programme Director)

Torbay & South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust:

The iTORCH programme (innovators of TORbay Clinical Healthcare) was created in response to the recognition that trainees were poorly equipped to undertake meaningful and sustainable Quality Improvement Projects, despite their enthusiasm and willingness to undertake such work.

iTORCH aims to give trainees the opportunity to identify and fix problems encountered in their everyday work. This is achieved through a combination of teaching and mentoring. iTORCH encourages trainees to showcase their work internally at Clinical and Executive meetings to demonstrate the potential for change junior have within the Trust.

Trainees are encouraged to carry out projects that have a direct impact on their everyday work, as opposed to being assigned “audits” by their seniors, which are often of little or no relevance to the trainee.

The medical education department at Torbay actively participates in iTORCH, in terms of arranging teaching, suggesting upcoming conferences and helping facilitate trainee projects.

Successes have included 8 poster projects and 7 trainees all attending the Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference in New Orleans last year. Torbay trainees have also been runner up in the Junior Doctor Audit of the Year Competition for two of the last three years.

The iTORCH programme has always been looking to expand into other localities. The New South West QI Academy set up by the deanery will give trainees across the Peninsula access to the best quality improvement information standardised across the patch, and iTORCH methodologies will feature within this.

Quality Improvement Project Competition details here!

QI Champions:

Foundation Contacts:

Nick Mathieu

(F1 Foundation Programme Director)

Kirsty Ellmers

(F2 Foundation Programme Director)

South West Academic Health Science Network:

The South West Academic Health Science Network (SWAHSN) is running a regional quality improvement collaborative and is very supportive of quality improvement work done by junior doctors. Our aim is to help front line staff in three ways; coaching through existing projects, connecting to others from around the region and providing formal quality improvement (QI) training. If you would like to know more and get involved with the regional work then e-mail the QI Champion.

QI Champion:

Rob Bethune

Other contacts:

Amelia Brooks

Emma Roberts

This page was last updated June 13th 2019 (2 years ago)