inspire spring 2014

InspireThe magazine for our health care colleagues Issue 1 | Spring 2014

Delivering great care

The interview… Laura O’Riordan

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15

John’s a big inspiration

Made it happen

Quality outfit…8

QualityImprovement

Inspire, Issue 1, Spring 2014

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Hello and welcome to our new Health Care magazine, Inspire

When I joined Care UK last year, it was clear to me that in all parts of our business, our colleagues are doing great things, every day. What we didn’t do, however, was to share these examples across our teams.

As you’ll see as you flick through this edition, we have teams, providing a wide range of services to our patients, who go above and beyond every day. All of us support patient care, whether we are providing critical services in our support functions or providing front-line services and having contact with our patients on a daily basis. What Inspire is here to do is show you the range of work that we do in the Health Care division, and how we all play a vital role.

Many of you will have heard about our focus on quality and this is something that shines through in this edition.

We are training a huge team of team leaders, facilitators and managers to drive up our standards by sharing tools and techniques with you (see pages 8-9). We want to improve our processes, make life easier for our patients and commissioners and ensure consistent high quality in the services that we provide.

I am sure we can all see improvements we can make, whether in our own area or in those that impact on our work. For us to be successful, I need everyone to get involved, and if you can see improvements that will make a difference to our services, please do speak up, act and take responsibility for driving them forward. You’ll see examples of how some of our colleagues have done just that in this and future editions.

I look forward to reading about how you’ve inspired your colleagues in a future edition.

Best wishes

JimJim EastonManaging director Health Care

What does quality mean to you? It means measured improvements in patient outcomes, patient safety and patient experience – led by local teams.

How are you improving quality in your area? Working hard to support our company-wide approach to quality improvement.

What quality improvements have you seen recently? There’s no shortage of great quality improvements locally – I see them every time I visit one of our sites – like the work at the Brighton

EAC to prevent unnecessary admissions that I saw on my last visit before Christmas. What we

need to build is a more organised approach to spreading these ideas and supporting front-line teams in driving more improvements.

One-minute interview: quality

Welcome

Our next edition is due out in the summer and we’re looking for you to get involved! We want contributions from all areas of our business so if you have a success story that you’d like to share, whether it’s about you or your colleagues, let us know!

Contact the Engagement and Communications team with your story ideas by email at [email protected]

Editor: Toni NoblePublished: February 2014

The front cover shows John Tsikata from HMP Belmarsh. Read about John’s role and his approach to leadership on pages 10-11.

Get involved

See what

our colleagues

are saying about

quality on the

back page...

There’s no nervous patient or worried relative that Maggie Thomas can’t put at their ease with her fun and sympathetic manner.

Colleague Lesley Turnbull says her warmth and humour are a great asset to Bristol’s Emersons Green Treatment Centre, which provides day-case and in-patient surgery.“In 30 years, Maggie’s the best I’ve ever seen at managing patients and their relatives,” says the theatre manager.

Health care assistant Maggie has been admitting and discharging the centre’s patients for four years.

“Having a laugh and a joke always puts people’s minds at ease if they’re nervous or upset,” says Maggie.

“We’re a great team here and I just love the job.”

The magazine for health care colleagues

Got a story to share? Seeing something that makes you proud? Email health care communications ([email protected]) and you could see your story here

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A care approach developed by Dr Charles Lewis and Dr Jurgita Cekanavinciene is helping their team provide exceptional support to vulnerable patients.

The homeless and people with a history of alcohol or substance misuse, or with mental health issues, have a more in-depth registration process at Portsmouth’s Guildhall Walk Healthcare Centre.

“They’re identified quickly and we get a lot of background information for their first consultation to plan their care,” says senior GP Dr Lewis.

“Our approach is comprehensive, consistent and integrated. Patients are seen by the same doctor, we follow a firm prescription policy and work closely with other specialist providers.

“The Commissioners are pleased and the whole team is proud of our service.”

In-depth approachboosts supportfor the vulnerable

Comfort queen... Maggie Thomas

You do great things every day, both in and out of the office, with dedication, care and

compassion. We’re showcasing just some of your work, rest and play successes over three pages…

Work, rest and play

Care pair... Dr Jurgita Cekanavinciene and Dr Charles Lewis came up with the successful approach

Fun styleMaggieis the bestEddie Jahn,

MD Urgent Care

What quality improvements have you seen recently?

Christmas and New Year has always been a highly stressful time in Urgent Care – it’s when most other services have time off. Here’s a quote from a senior manager on Boxing Day: “In my 17 years with Harmoni I have never seen a Boxing Day this steady.”

Carol Chapman’s weekends are as hectic as her day job as an administrator for Buckinghamshire Musculoskeletal Integrated Care Service.

“I work Saturdays, so my weekend is Friday and Sunday,” says Carol, who starts every morning with a 5am bible study session.

Her faith sustains her through her busy role dealing with appointment calls at the High Wycombe centre as well as in her many outside work commitments.

“Through my church, I help with a children’s summer holiday camp, our Church in the Pub sessions, a monthly group for adults with learning difficulties and our Sunday School, and I raise money for Christian charity Open Doors.

“I get such fulfilment and peace from helping others.”

How do you treat long waiting times? Paul Fisher knows. He’s launched a new patient flow system that’s doing just that.

See and Treat is working so well for minor injuries patients at St Mary’s Treatment Centre in Portsmouth, customer satisfaction scores are up and colleagues want to do more shifts.

“We’re very pleased – average waits are down to 70 minutes from 2.5 hours,” says service manager Paul.

“See and Treat is used elsewhere and we adapted it for us.

“Instead of a triage nurse just prioritising patients, we have a nurse practitioner seeing them and treating any that can be done immediately, which means better patient flow – with some out in under 10 minutes.”4

Flowing... Paul’s new system cuts waiting times

All smiles... craft-y hat work for Carol as she helps out at her church’s summer children’s camp

Patient flowsystemis workinga treat…

Faith sustains Carol as she buzzesthrough work and packed ‘spare’ time


Welcoming Judehelps revampprison health centre to createa smooth operation



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Tasty cake sales, a salon nail service, managers serving tea and an Oscars dress-up – office charity

volunteers Chris Charters and Elaine Wilks are never short of cash-raising ideas.

They work in the contact centre for GM CATS.

“Everyone’s really generous,” says Chris, planning and allocation lead.

“We’ve raised more than £3,000 since 2011 for all sorts of charities, from the big national ones to a local animal shelter.”

Keen baker Elaine hopes to add a new event for this year.

“We’re looking to do something bigger offsite for everyone,” says Elaine, patient management adviser.

“We want 2014 to be even more successful than last year.”

Friendly, welcoming and organised – Jude Henderson’s helping to transform the way HMP Springhill’s health centre runs for both patients and nurses.

The former pharmacy technician is usually the first person inmates

meet.

“I’m a people person and like the one-to-one contact,” says the administrator, who joined the Buckinghamshire prison’s health team last March.

“I explain what they need to know and where to go – which didn’t always happen before - and I liaise with the staff and our nurses. It’s very rewarding.”

Working with the nursing team, she’s played a key role in revamping the service, streamlining processes and reorganising the office.

“Everything works more smoothly now for both patients and nurses,” says Jude.

Gaenor Smith is out every Friday night. But she’s not hitting bars and clubs, she’s running an activity group for adults with learning difficulties.

As well as providing members with a fun two hours, the sessions also give carers a vital break.

“I thought I’d just be a short-term volunteer but I’ve ended up organising it,” says the NHS111 resource planning

manager, who has run the Avon North Mencap group with a team of young helpers since 2011.

“Bingo, craft nights – they take a lot of preparation – and a horse racing game I invented are favourites, and I’m hoping to get a cupcake cooker for this year.

“I love them to bits and it’s great fun.”

Tasty sale... Chris and Elaine raise more charity cake cash with help from generous CATS’ colleagues

Fund raisersare planningbig for 2014

Friday night is volunteering night for activity group leader Gaenor

Fun Fridays... Gaenor dreams up fun activities for her regular group

Southall NHS 111 has introduced a new staff forum to engage with colleagues about how things are running and how they can be improved.

North East Essex OOH is going to introduce feedback boxes and a dedicated email address for ops and clinical colleagues.

Luton OOH is improving training opportunities by introducing Adastra workshops, Excel courses and a first aid course for service coordinators.

Colleagues providing NHS 111 services in East of England are now feeding back compliments and complaints to improve quality and patient satisfaction.

The office management team at Hawker House, Reading, has introduced a new starters’ pack and name cards for colleagues who are permanently based in the Reading office. Plans are in place to introduce team signs and a photo gallery too.

Made it happen

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Delivering great care

Dynamic driversrefuse to be beatenwhatever the weather

During the move to Manchester, Community Diagnostics held team meetings to ensure staff were aware of the changes that would occur and feel a greater part of Care UK.Made it happen

Versatile drivers Richard Manton and Alan Ritson (pictured above) go to great lengths to keep our Lincolnshire Intermediate Musculoskeletal Service (LIMSS) on the road.

In the past, they have arranged for repairs to be made to the equipment they deliver to clinics across the county besides fixing minor problems themselves.They have worked many

unsociable hours, volunteered for extra shifts and braved treacherous conditions, including knee-deep snow, to ensure LIMSS is always operational.

“We have never been beaten by the elements yet,” says Richard, who is sometimes up at 4am to ensure the HGV and equipment get to LIMSS practitioners on time.

“We are now fully prepared for any weather, including deep snow. The best part is the great teamwork and also the patients

we meet who really appreciate all we do.”

Richard ensures the equipment is delivered before each clinic starts, while Alan takes the late shift, removing it at the end of the day.

The well-deserved respect for both drivers by the teams of clinicians at each site was highlighted when they won our Special Recognition Award for Primary Care in last year’s Health Care Awards.

Due to their caring efforts, no

clinics have been cancelled through non-delivery of equipment and they have saved LIMSS thousands of pounds with innovative ideas for repairs.

“Working for LIMSS is fascinating because you can never be certain exactly what will happen,” says Alan, who is so versatile he has seven jobs, including owning a restaurant in Lincoln and presenting for two local radio stations. “To ensure things run smoothly we have to be flexible and think on our feet.”




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Our Will Adams NHS Treatment Centre in Gillingham is the first

independent provider to offer bowel screening and take part in a national pilot scheme.

“We persuaded the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme that our team was good enough to operate the service and be part of the pilot,” says clinical services manager Pat Baker who set it up with Maggie Whitlow.

“Bowel cancer can be difficult to spot, but early detection helps save lives. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the

UK with 16,000 deaths annually.”

Will Adams’ current service provides one four-hour session per week, screening up to 12 patients.

Pat says: “It has been successful so far – we have seen 106 patients since starting and this will expand to a second session in March. The plan is to run six sessions by the end of this year.”

This pilot is screening people more than 55 years of age instead of 60 and will measure

how effective earlier detection could be in saving lives.

“We offer a quality, efficient and cost-effective service with high patient satisfaction,” says endoscopy lead Maggie, who won our Secondary Care Special Recognition Award last year with Pat.

“This is a good opportunity for an independent NHS treatment centre to show how well we can fit in within the NHS structure, in a co-operative and successful way.”

A team developing more direct ways for patients to access surgery hopes its innovative ideas will grow.

Senior sister Joanne Rowbottom and data quality manager Kate Buckle continue to work with project manager Jamilla Rashid to develop even better patient pathways for those using GM CATS.

“We are developing new direct listing pathways with both independent healthcare providers and NHS Hospital Trusts,” says Jamilla.

“At times we had challenging meetings but it was worth it and we gained great insight together and stronger working relationships.

“Our vision is to have all hospitals providing a direct listing to surgery with no duplication for patients in diagnostics, investigations or pre-operative assessment.

“This will mean significant cost savings for the commissioner and a greater patient experience. The aim is a smooth transition of patients from GM CATS to secondary care providers.

“It is a team effort across all our services to give the best experience possible,” says Joanne. “I enjoy working with this dedicated, enthusiastic team which is passionate about delivering the best care and working for an innovative and forward-thinking service constantly embracing change.“Our patients have given very positive feedback about the quality of care.”

Kate says the challenge will continue: “We want this service to grow across all our specialties and the wider healthcare community. We are successful because the whole team works together and towards the same goal of creating great patient experience.”

Team isclearing pathto surgery

National firstas independentjoins screening pilot

Kate Buckle, Jamilla Rashid and Joanne Rowbottom

Pat Baker and Maggie Whitlow

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“With our aim to be in the top 10 per cent of health care providers in the UK, we need to deliver exceptional patient care consistently across all of our services. We need to rethink how we approach quality, and how we all contribute, and it’s something that we all need to get involved with,” says director of quality improvement and governance Susan Marshall.

Here you can meet just some of the team helping to develop our approach to quality... you’ll see more of the team in the next edition.

Quality outfit...

Becky Fountain, marketing manager

Time with the business: I’ve been with Harmoni for five and a half years and joined as a marketing assistant

For me, quality means... giving us the ability to achieve our corporate and functional objectives in the most efficient and effective way, while keeping excellent patient care at the heart of what we do

I’m a QI facilitator because... I want to ensure quality is embedded in everything we do in the Health Care marketing team.

Susan Marshall


Rolf Lamsdale, programme office manager, head of business systems programme management office Time with the business: I joined in this role in July For me, quality means... defining what you’ll create in a project and the criteria to measure success, balancing appropriate standards with cost. It’s also about continuous improvement for the

benefit of the company and our customers. I’m a QI facilitator because... it’s a natural extension of my role – we have been using QI tools and techniques to continually review and drive process improvements within business systems. This has led to changes in the way that we control, manage and prioritise new work coming into the team and the way that we report progress to our colleagues.

QualityImprovement

Reuben Gillow, financial controller for the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire contract at Bristol’s Emersons Green NHS Treatment Centre

Time with the business: just over four years – I joined as an accountant

For me, quality means... ensuring that we achieve the best possible outcomes for all our patients – it’s at the centre of everything we do

I’m a QI facilitator because... I felt that my analytical background would be useful in formalising and measuring the quality work being done in Secondary Care, as well as helping to drive future improvements forward



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The QI team, left to right: Becky Fountain, Rolf Lamsdale, Reuben Gillow, Debbie Wapshott, Richard Pisarski, Lisa Barter

Debbie Wapshott, QI manager for Primary Care Time with the business: I joined in October 2013 as a QI manager to support the QI approach For me, quality means... doing the right thing to the right patient at the right time – better, safer and more efficient

I’m a QI manager because... I’m passionate about patient care. I want to be part of a business that believes quality underpins everything and that good is not enough when there’s an opportunity for excellence. I’m excited to work in a business with the vision to be ‘healthcare provider of choice’.

Lisa Barter, head of financial control and reporting

Time with the business: I joined in February 2004 as financial controller within Mercury Health, which was acquired by Care UK in April 2007

For me, quality means... efficiency and effectiveness in all that we doI’m a QI facilitator because... I believe my team and I can make a difference and ultimately, we all can

Suzanne Lawrence, MD Primary Care

How are you improving quality in your area?

A key area is trying to approach patient complaints and concerns differently – through staying genuinely open to the experience of the patient to ensure any lessons are learned, and secondly to address any complaints as soon as they arise.

See how

the QI team’s tools

and techniques are

helping us generate

quality ideas on

page 14

Richard Pisarski, QI manager for Secondary Care Time with the business: I joined as a QI improvement manager as part of last year’s UK Specialist Hospitals acquisition For me, quality means... designing and running patient-centred services in the best way we can, and by doing this other aspects of quality, such as efficiency, will come naturally I’m a QI manager because... I want to help us build on the high quality we already deliver to patients, continuously improving as we grow and develop our services

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Popular prison charge nurse John Tsikata won our top inspirational leader award. Known as big John to all HMP Belmarsh staff and the prisoners he cares for, his personality, huge enthusiasm for his job and leadership skills are an award–winning combination. Here we get an insight into how the unique environment has shaped his inspirational style…

Inspirational John leads from the front

Without a lot of patience you cannot work with prisoners. Some think they can get you angry but working here has made me more mellow

HMP Belmarsh is launching Head of Healthcare surgeries for members of staff to raise and discuss any issues.Made it happen




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When John Tsikata sees a patient at Belmarsh he has no interest in what the prisoner may have done… he simply wants to help.

He treats all patients with compassion and non–judgment, no matter what crime they have committed.

“Belmarsh has Category A all–male prisoners,” says John, who joined the service in 1999 and now leads a team of 20 staff nurses. “We treat everything from headaches, abdominal pain and depression to chest pains or wounds. It is challenging but I enjoy it – every day is different.

“Interacting with the prisoners is interesting. Some are open about what they have done and others claim their innocence. Patients range from petty thieves to robbers and murderers, but when treating them you put their crime aside. All you need to know is why they want to see you and I just want to improve their life.”

Tolerance is a key aspect, as some patients can be very abusive.

“Without a lot of patience you cannot work with prisoners,” says John. “Some think they can get you angry but working here has made me more mellow.

“Most of the prisoners call me big John and I build a rapport with them. I have learnt from them, too – if someone stepped on my toes now in the outside world I would just walk away.

“Working here has changed me – I see things from a different perspective. This is a very caring job – you need compassion, to be non-judgmental and understand where they are coming from.”

Having originally wanted to be a lawyer, John left Ghana, where he was born and brought up, to take up a scholarship studying poultry farming in 1986.

When the salmonella crisis hit his job as assistant manager on a poultry farm, John relocated to London where he enrolled as a nurse.

“It was a complete change, but the best decision I have ever taken,” says John, who worked in a hospital after qualifying.

Highly flexible, John often doubles up as the rapid response charge nurse and clinical manager at Belmarsh.

“John really is an extraordinary person,” says his manager Denise Capstick. “He is firm and fair in staff–related issues.”

With a wide clinical knowledge, John has so much passion and flair for delivering healthcare in prison.

“He works tirelessly and long hours to deliver excellence in patient care, never complaining.

“John is well respected by all staff at HMP Belmarsh. He is supportive and encouraging to the team and leads from the front, demonstrating consistently high standards.”

His role ensuring the smooth function of the out-patient unit includes the staff and GP rotas, and organising dentistry, chiropody and other clinics besides dealing with prisoners’ and solicitors’ complaints.

John says listening is key to being a good leader.

“You also need to be easy going, inclusive, empathetic, and deeply caring,” says John. “You must have no fear of being proven wrong and love to lead your staff.

“My leadership style is democratic – I call it participative leadership – if they are part of the decision-making, everything works smoothly. Working with prisoners is a complicated sort of nursing but I love it and the team I work with is important to me.”

What did you want to bewhen you were a child?A lawyer

A book/film that changed me...Autobiography of Richard Branson – it inspired me that you can be anything you want to be in life

Person you’d like to sit next to on a long flight? My wife Kate

In a nutshell my approach to life is…Get things done and never wait for tomorrow – procrastination is the thief of time. My wife calls me: “It’s got to be done”

Comfort food?Potato and lamb chops with mint and gravy

Cat or dog person?A chicken person

Tell us a secret...I am scared of mice!

UpcloseInspirational John leads from the front

John Tsikata with members of his team at Belmarsh

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ClinicalPerformers…

“I was excited about the challenge of how to deliver this completely new service in a clinically safe way,” says Angie, a qualified nurse for 28 years with a background mainly in primary care, who has just been appointed national NHS 111 clinical lead for Care UK.

“My task was to organise our new Bristol-based NHS 111 clinical advisor team in a challenging environment, while ensuring patients were safe and employees managed and supported as we took over from the call handling aspect of the out-of-hours services and later from NHS Direct.”

As clinical lead, Angie headed a 49-strong clinical team of nurses and paramedics.

“A key area was prioritising patients and finding the best way of risk assessing people, particularly at times when the service was under significant pressure,” says Angie, who assisted in developing innovative processes recognised as best practice and shared across our services.

“Based on prioritising those needing more urgent attention, it won recognition internally with the Quality Improvement and Innovation Award last year and I was pleased other centres

could benefit and learn from this practice.”

Angie also identified two other new processes that resulted in huge improvements to the patient pathway.

“We got a reduction in the rate of ambulance dispatches by introducing a new methodology in conjunction with clinical

commissioners,” says Angie. “This saw our ambulance dispatch rates dramatically reduce.

“A lot of our success is down to great teamwork. We deal with 56,000 calls a month here and have a very low complaint rate – it is good to know you have a positive effect on so many people.”

Health advisors Courtney Chard and Ellie Bowden

As the first clinician appointed to help launch our South West NHS 111 service, Angie Hill, right, blazed a trail with a positive impact on other call centres across Care UK.




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Sharon Wells has no regrets at swapping the world of finance to join our busy NHS 111 call centre in Bristol as a supervisor.

“I love the involvement with people and it’s good to know you are helping,” says Sharon, whose working day can start anywhere from 6am and finish up to 11pm at night.

“I was one of the first people on board when the NHS 111 service was introduced. We mainly receive calls from patients in the South West, Gloucester and Swindon areas who require medical assistance when their GP surgeries are closed. “An NHS 111 supervisor’s working day starts with checking emails. I support the health advisors (HAs) when they require assistance during or after a call. As a supervisor, I provide support to our teams, carrying out one-to-ones and giving feedback.

“We also answer telephone queries to our out-of-hours partners and I assist with incidents, queries and complaints, too.”

Bristol currently has 10 supervisors, with around 170 HAs.

“When a HA receives a call we initially obtain the personal details,” says Sharon. “An assessment is then completed to rule out any life-threatening condition.

“Once this has been actioned, we triage the patient’s symptoms using the Pathways system. If relevant, the call will be transferred to one of our clinicians, who are medically trained, or alternatively the HA will provide the patient with an appropriate service, within a safe timescale. Obviously, due to patient requirements everything gets much busier during evenings and weekends.”

Sharon has recently changed roles to become administration manager, providing the back office support service.

“I was in the banking world for 24 years and it has been challenging but I’m glad I moved,” Sharon says. “I feel NHS 111 is a brilliant service and every day is different.”

Day in the Life of… Sharon Wells at NHS 111 in Bristol

Colleagues providing NHS 111 services in the East of England are now feeding back compliments and complaints to improve quality and patient satisfaction. Made it happen

Sharon Wells

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Get ready for our first group QI activity – everyone will soon be asked to take part in a waste walk.

The division-wide event will be organised by close to 100 team leaders who have just been trained in QI tools, techniques and methodology.

Secondary Care’s QI manager Richard Pisarski says the 10-minute work area task is a great way of spotting waste and encouraging smarter working.

“There should be plenty of opportunity with seven waste types to watch for – time, stock, the movement of people and things, repeated work, over-processing and over-production,” says Richard.

“We’re also looking at launching QI resources that will feature other tools and techniques along with a blog.”

Look out for further details on the waste walk by email.

Stormingahead…

Quality improvement sessions will soon be coming to a meeting room near you as our QI team uses their tools and techniques to help us find slicker ways of working to enhance our services and performance.

Over the coming weeks and months, our full-time QI managers and seven QI volunteer facilitators will be sharing their skills and supporting teams across the division. Team leaders in our service lines are also being trained in the techniques this Spring.

Early QI workshops have already helped sales and marketing colleagues generate dozens of ideas on how they can improve quality through working more effectively and efficiently.

QI facilitator Becky Fountain, who helped stage the sessions, says the idea-generating activities were an effective way

of getting people focused on boosting quality.

“One technique enabled people to look at what they do from someone else’s position,” says Becky, who did her QI training at the end of last year.

“We started with some famous names like Richard Branson and Joanna Lumley before doing the same from the point of view of roles like a patient, a GP and a commissioner to get an insight into what could be improved to help them.

“We also came up with ideas on quality on sticky notes mapped to different headings, followed by groups giving feedback on key themes.”

Head of Secondary Care’s marketing and sales Helen Jamieson was delighted by the range of ideas.

“Since the December event, we’ve been looking at how best to develop them,” says Helen.

Taking note... new QI ideas are captured by QI facilitator Becky Fountain, left, and head of Secondary Care’s marketing and sales Helen Jamieson.

Richard Branson and Joanna Lumley are helping us boost our quality performance. They are two of the famous names that our new Quality Improvement (QI) initiative is using to help us come up with great smarter working ideas. We find out how and look at other ways our QI champions are inspiring us.

War on waste

Susan Marshall, quality improvement and governance director

What quality improvements have you seen recently?

That our responses to complainants are much more empathetic, we apologise more readily and we are much less defensive.

Meet some

of our QI team

on pages eight

and nine




15

Laura O’Riordan has won a well-deserved promotion to become head of operations for London Urgent Care services.

The new role follows hot on the heels of her success in developing out-of-hours (OOH) services for North Central London (NCL).

Under incredible pressure in her previous job as NCL service delivery manager, Laura and the team completely turned around the service performance.

“I am most proud of leading

our NCL team to a new service design with the integration of an external NHS 111 service to GP out-of-hours,” says Laura, who remained focused in the face of intense scrutiny from the media, commissioners and Care Quality Commission.

“I had to consider the clinical and operational development of leaders and we overcame the issues through excellent team work and great communication.

“NCL now enjoys a good team spirit and has met National Quality Requirements

compliancy levels for several months.

“It was also recognised by OOH industry expert Henry Clay, who concluded Harmoni is a better than average provider.

“I now want to spread the innovative services we developed across the other London teams and am also looking forward to sharing their best practices, too. Working as a team is the key to success.”

Winning a health care award last year showed the great results

NCL achieved says Laura, who came to London from Ireland in 1998, training as a nurse specialising in emergency care.

“I care deeply about patient services,” says Laura. “I have been fortunate to have roles where I can make a difference, supporting and leading teams. I enjoy motivating people to excel and take responsibility and pride in their work.

“It’s challenging, but vital we strive for consistency in giving great urgent care no matter where calls are taken.”

The interview

London callsfor Laura

As a child I wanted to…run in the Olympics or be a professional footballer for Aston Villa In a nutshell my approach to life is…if you believe in something see it through… and life may not always be the party we hoped for but we may as well dance Cat or dog person?dog – I miss my little King Charles Charlie, in Ireland I relax by...running, swimming or playing team sports and then undoing the good work by going to the pub Tell us a secret...I have All Ireland and World Championship honours for Irish dancing Person you'd like to sit next to on a long flight? Comedian David Walliams – he is hilarious and would have lots of stories to tell along the way

Aboutme

To mark our first issue, we bring you a competition which will test how closely you have read the magazine. The answers can only be found inside this publication.

Our two winners will each win a £25 shopping voucher of their choice.

If you’ve got all of the other clues right, the boxes shaded in pink should spell out a word that’s relevant to our division.

To be in with a chance of winning, send your seven letter word by email to the Engagement and Communications Team at [email protected] no later than 14 March. Please include your name, service or function and

your postal address with the answer.

The first two correct entries chosen at random will each win a £25 voucher. Winners’ names will be published in the next edition.

16

Alan Ritson, Primary Care Lincolnshire Intermediate Musculoskeletal Service (LIMSS) driver

“The team improves quality by recognising the task and its importance within the organisation and having applied our expertise to that we approach each aspect carefully and conscientiously.”

Sharon Wells, NHS 111 Bristol call centre supervisor and administration manager “We aim to get

everything right first time, treating people as we wish to be treated ourselves – the patient always comes first.”

Laura O’Riordan, head of operations, Urgent Care, London

“We are improving quality by increased auditing and reviewing of our clinicians work, for example, the NICE guidelines on treating a feverish child. In our newsletter we then highlight the common themes and learning points.”

John Tsikata, charge nurse, HMP Belmarsh, Thamesmead

“As a team we improve our quality by auditing, monitoring and performance managing measurement against the standard set or the benchmark.”

Kate Buckle, data quality manager at Greater Manchester Clinical Assessment

and Treatment Service (GM CATS)“To improve and maintain quality we have introduced an audit schedule for our administration processes which is working well and is gradually being rolled out across all admin teams.”

Joanne Rowbottom, senior sister north and south unit GMCATS

“By encouraging everyone to question ‘why do we do that’ and learning from any feedback we receive, both positive and negative.”

Last wordWe asked you…how is your team improving quality?

For fun...

1. A special care approach by Dr Charles Lewis and Dr Jurgita Cekanavinciene is helping their team provide exceptional

to vulnerable patients

2. Angie Hill puts the success of the new Bristol-based NHS 111 clinical advisor team down to great

3. Prison charge nurse John Tsikata worked on a farm before switching to nursing

4. Laura O’Riordan, head of operations for London Urgent Care services, has won awards for dancing

5. Our first group QI activity will be a walk

6. Drivers Alan Ritson and Richard Manton won our Special Award

7. Reuben Gillow defines quality as “ensuring we achieve the best possible for all our patients”

Word puzzle

2

3

1

7

4

5

6



We hope that you have enjoyed our first edition. If you have any feedback or ideas for future editions, please email [email protected]

inspire spring 2014

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