News & Updates
Stories from Improvement Leaders
4 April 2022
In April the eleventh wave of the ELFT Improvement Leaders’ Programme (ILP) concludes with a graduation event for over 100 ELFT staff & services users. During March we caught up with some of our improvement leaders to hear the story of their project so far. Find out more from Syeda, Kamel, Lawrence, Michael, Gabriel and… Read More
Podcast: A Reflection on Enjoying Work
15 March 2022
By Nicola Ballingall, Senior Improvement Advisor In this short, 3-minute podcast, hear from three of the teams involved with Enjoying Work learning sessions at ELFT. These sessions brought together teams using QI (quality improvement) to help identify and test ways for staff across the Trust to improve staff experience and infuse joy in their work…. Read More
Reflections from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
22 February 2022
by the Quality Improvement team, “The dedication and eagerness to improve care is remarkable” Earlier this year, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (the IHI) visited ELFT to learn about improvement work happening across the Trust and listen to staff, service users and carers who are leading the way. Patti, Pedro and Derek, who are introduced… Read More
Using QI tools to fairly gather and select change ideas for testing
1 February 2022
By Cath Heaney, Improvement Advisor In 5 minutes, learn more about nominal group technique, affinity diagrams and multi-voting with accompanying videos of a team using these tools. These three QI tools are quick, interactive activities that can help teams generate ideas quickly and fairly, group common ideas together and then prioritise which ones to test… Read More
The Crisis Line: Reducing Unanswered Calls
20 January 2022
By Lara Odelusi, Improvement Advisor & Melanie King, Tower Hamlets Crisis pathway service manager In this five-minute read, you can find out about how the Tower Hamlets Crisis Line have used quality improvement to reduce the number of unanswered calls to the service. Find out what they did, which change ideas resulted in an improvement… Read More
A Nurse’s ‘Daily Improvement’ Idea to Improve the Experience and Outcomes for Service Users in Tower Hamlets
20 January 2022
By Susan Alfred, Improvement Advisor Anyone can use quality improvement tools in their everyday work. Daily improvement can be applied to simple quality issues and process problems to help make small improvements in more straightforward scenarios. Big, complex issues will still benefit from the structure of a project and a team, and we should continue… Read More
The Eight Wastes – Can You Name Them?
12 January 2022
By Susan Alfred, Improvement Advisor and Sarah Barnett, Financial Viability Programme Manager The Quality Improvement department are running short two-part, 30 minute sessions to help staff apply QI tools called ‘QI tools – Learn and Apply’. Last November, the focus was on the ‘8 Wastes Tool’. There was great interest in this topic, with almost… Read More
The Power of Data in Reducing Pressure Ulcers
12 January 2022
By Carole Taylor, Lead Nurse for Tissue Viability In this 5-minute read, hear from Carole Taylor (Lead Nurse for Tissue Viability) about how a team at ELFT have used Quality Improvement (QI) to reduce pressure ulcers. Learn about what they have done to reduce pressure ulcers by 31% and how looking at data over time… Read More
Veterans Project: A carer reflects on her QI journey
17 November 2021
By Sharon Dean, Armed Forces Service Champion In this personal reflection, Sharon Dean, Armed Forces Service Champion, veteran’s wife, and carer talks about the impact so far of the veterans improvement work at ELFT, which aims to build health and social opportunities for veterans and their families. A veteran is an individual aged 16+ who… Read More
The QI Fellow Blog
15 November 2021
By Craig Donohoe, QI Fellow, QI coach, expert by experience and carer This is my blog as the first Quality Improvement (QI) Fellow – Expert by Experience in the ELFT QI department. I am Craig Donohoe, an expert by experience, carer, and service user from Luton, Bedfordshire. In this 15-minute read I will share my… Read More
The Authentic Involvement Charter
15 November 2021
By Craig Donohoe, QI Fellow, QI Coach, expert by experience and carer A project team led by service users and carers at East London NHS Foundation Trust is currently working with the aim of improving the authenticity of co-production in quality improvement projects in the Bedfordshire Crisis Mental Health directorate by November 2021. As one of their change ideas that they have started… Read More
How CAMHS and their service users are making things better, together
10 November 2021
By Cath Heaney, Improvement Advisor In this 10 minute read, learn about the “Making It Better, Together” event held by the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CAMHS) at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and what will be happening next. (Figure 1. A copy of the invitation to the event) On 11th October… Read More
Bedfordshire Community Health Services’ Improvement Journey: How Did They Do It?
10 November 2021
by Nicola Ballingall, Senior Improvement Advisor This 6-minute video is a sneak peek into Bedfordshire Community Health Services’ (BCHS) new QI Forum, which now forms part of the monthly managers’ meeting. Hear from Allison Jones (Deputy Director), Sarah O Hare (QI Coach), Carole Green (People Participation Lead) and Sharon Eplett (QI Coach) on how they… Read More
Increasing People Participation in Bedfordshire Community Health Services
27 October 2021
By Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor and Carole Green, People Participation Lead In this 6-minute read learn how, in 11 months, a QI project team successfully increased the number of service users involved in Bedfordshire Community Health Services from 8 to a total of 37. Do you want to increase service user involvement in your… Read More
Improving Access to Newham Learning Disabilities team
6 October 2021
By Susan Alfred, Improvement Advisor and Rachel James, Speech and Language Therapist “I met with a carer – they had to tell me, just as they have told many health professionals before, all about their journey. They seemed frustrated having to repeat this again and again” Newham Learning Disabilities team (NHLD) Team member What was the Quality Issue?… Read More
Applying Quality Improvement methods to optimise flow, demand & capacity
1 October 2021
By Auz Chitewe, Associate Director of Quality Improvement Across the organisation, many services are looking at how to manage demand for services, capacity to deliver the service and flow of service provision across the system. Due to increased numbers of referrals and the effects of having to prioritise the acute phase of the pandemic, more… Read More
Using QI To Manage A Huge Increase In Demand
29 September 2021
By Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor In this 10 min read, learn about how one of our Primary Care GP practices in Bedfordshire, Cauldwell Medical Centre, is using quality improvement (QI) to manage the huge increase in demand on their service. It’s August 2021 and the world is starting to open up again after the pandemic. 98.2% of UK GPs state that… Read More
A Collaborative Approach to Reducing Waiting Times
20 September 2021
By Candace Sinclair, Improvement Advisor and Dr Laura Checkley, Consultant Psychiatrist, Hackney Integrated Learning Disability Service In this six-minute read, find out how Dr Laura Checkley and the City and Hackney Integrated Learning Disability Service (ILDS) galvanized energy for Quality Improvement during the Covid-19 pandemic and how they used working virtually to their advantage resulting in… Read More
Improving flow in Early Years Speech and Language Therapy
20 September 2021
Using Quality Improvement tools to get to testing change ideas. By Catherine Heaney, Improvement Advisor 5-minute read The Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Quality Improvement (QI) project began in April 2021. A multidisciplinary team was formed, representing a range a people from across the departmental and organisational boundaries in Specialist Children’s and Young… Read More
Good Vibes at the Velodrome: Reconnecting at the Quality Away Day
6 September 2021
By the Quality Improvement team The quality department had their long-awaited away day on the 2nd September at the Velodrome in the Olympic park in Stratford. It was our first in-person away day since December 2019. Everyone agreed meeting in person, despite the social distancing and mask wearing, was an incredibly positive experience, generating much… Read More
