News & Updates
Stories from Cohort 4 of Enjoying Work
29 March 2021
If you’re interested in making real improvements and improve the wellbeing and satisfaction of you and your team at work, sign up to an introductory session to Enjoying Work Use the links below to explore these stories: Randomised Coffee Meeting to Tackle Isolation A Cohesive Breakfast Club Improving the Experience of New Starters Using a… Read More
Learning from Covid-19: How Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service began a Quality Improvement project about reducing inequalities
17 March 2021
By Catherine Heaney, Improvement Advisor 3-minute read This story explains how Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service, known as BWS, came to develop their project on reducing inequalities, how they identified these and the next steps to tackling them. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated potential inequalities for many, for example older adults with less confidence in digital environments, those who suffer from domestic abuse or perinatal service users for whom physical access to services… Read More
Technology for Teams in a Virtual Landscape
10 February 2021
QI Learning sessions run by the Tech Champions by Samina Aklas, Trainee Data Analyst It is always stimulating to deploy new technology and tools to enhance the work we do. The Quality department asked for volunteers from within the department to become Tech Champions. They offered a series of group and 1:1 session to… Read More
Tackling Social Isolation in Forensics Community Teams
4 February 2021
by Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor 4 minute watch Forensics community teams ran a Shaping our Future workshop to guide their response to Covid-19. It was attended by staff and service users from the East London Forensic Outreach Service (ELFOS) and the Specialist Community Forensics Team (SCFT) as well as partners who provide accommodation to our… Read More
A New Approach to Looking at Reducing Covid Infections
4 February 2021
by Francisco Frasquilho, Senior Improvement Advisor and Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor A new approach to looking at reducing Covid infections is being pioneered in City and Hackney, headed by Becks Lingard (Borough Lead Nurse), Lucy Goody (Gardner Ward Manager), and Claire Ritchie (Modern Matron). The team are meeting daily to progress the work, supported by… Read More
Recognising Racism: Using QI to Help Take Action
21 January 2021
By Tony Kasambira, Head of Nursing and Associate Clinical Director of Safety and Security – Forensics Cornelia Kundishora, Modern Matron – Forensics Emma Furlong, Occupational Therapy Assistant – Forensics Nicola Ballingall, Improvement Advisor – Forensics “Racism is different from violence and aggression as it affects and offends all BAME staff on shift.” (East India staff… Read More
Lived Experience in Covid Times: service users’ stories of Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service in 2020
21 January 2021
By Anna, Franchesca and Cath Heaney Improvement Advisor 6 minute watch Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service (BWS) are sharing their experiences of Quality Improvement through this series of stories. This 6-minute video is the third in the series. Anna and Franchesca discuss their lived experiences of the service during Covid times through the lenses of being service… Read More
QI and Pandemics in Bedfordshire, six months later: What did we learn?
21 January 2021
By Liz Dawson, Medical Director of Primary Care since April 2020 and former Clinical director for adult community services across Bedfordshire and Carlos Santos, Improvement Advsior for Corporate Services, Adult Community Services across Bedfordshire and for Primary Care across the Trust On the brink of Covid-19, multiple difficult decisions had to be made about which… Read More
Managing My Time with the ‘Microsoft To-Do’ App
20 January 2021
By Samina Aklas, Trainee Data Analyst Working from home during the Covid pandemic has brought with it a reliance on technology and as the world of technology evolves and new applications emerge, it has had a bigger impact on our working lives now more than ever. To maintain a work/life balance time management has become… Read More
Learning Disabilities Psychological Therapies making sense together: What changed during COVID-19?
15 September 2020
By Doranne McDonald and Carlos Santos, Improvement Advisors On 14 July, 2020, members of the Learning Disabilities (LD) Psychological Therapies team from Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, and Bedfordshire & Luton, came together to reflect on their experiences during COVID 19, and the changes their service have had to make as a result. The participants included:… Read More
SHAPING OUR FUTURE: Bedfordshire Inpatient Mental Health achievements under the pressure during Covid-19
25 August 2020
By Sher Kayani, Improvement Advisor 2021 update: The following three strategic priorities and their respective sponsors will inform and guide the quality improvement work for the Luton & Bedfordshire Inpatient Directorate in 2021 and they are as follows: • Connection (Sponsor, Dr Guy Thompson) • Outcomes & Safety (Sponsor, Sasha Singh) • Staff Health &… Read More
City and Hackney: Nurturing the roots of change using projects and daily improvement tools during the pandemic
20 August 2020
By Francisco Frasquilho, Senior Improvement Advisor 2021 update: The Mother and Baby Unity (MBU) project team have continued to trial out a new electronic recording system for referrals, seeing a shift downwards in the time taken to process new referrals (an 85% reduction) in September 2020. The team were also planning to test out a… Read More
My Experience Of Being Virtually Recruited During Lockdown
7 August 2020
By Samina Aklas,Trainee Data Analyst, Quality Improvement Team It is always an exciting, but nerve-racking experience when starting a new job. Adapting to an unfamiliar environment, and meeting new colleagues is hard. It’s even harder during a global pandemic, where there have been unprecedented changes in many areas. I strongly believe that things happen for a reason. As it was still lockdown, I went through the whole recruitment process at… Read More
Tech Champions – Supporting the Quality Improvement Department with New and Existing Technology
5 August 2020
Figure 1. Tech Champions in the Quality Improvement Department testing new and innovative ways of doing things.In early 2020 not everybody in the Quality Improvement Department was up to speed with the latest software and technology that was available to us. This was exacerbated when the Covid-19 lockdown began, and we needed to find new… Read More
Using Improvement Tools
10 July 2020
“Forensics newsflash! With so much change over the past few months, the Forensics directorate have really had to their utilise improvement tools. They have mapped out the causes and effects of racial inequality using a ‘fishbone diagram’. A ‘sketchnote’ has been drawn to communicate a new quality improvement project. A plan to mitigate the impact of Covid19 has been laid out using… Read More
Shaping the Future of ‘Integrated Discharge Hubs’ in Bedfordshire
8 July 2020
By Michael Mcghee, Carlos Santos, Susan Alfred, Carole Green, Gopal Waddon and Amrus Ali 2021 update: The ‘BCHS Shaping Our Future’ workshops brought staff, service users and partners together to help shape the future of the ‘Integrated Discharge Hubs’ in both Luton & Dunstable and Bedford hospitals. The hubs were set up in all ELFT… Read More
Quality Department ‘Virtual Away Day’
29 June 2020
A personal reflection by Katherine Brittin, Associate Director of Quality Improvement. The Quality Department hosted their first ‘proper’ virtual ‘away day’ on 26 June. What I mean by ‘proper’, is that it was designed with intent to utilise the technology we now have available to the best we could and develop content to reflect our… Read More
Exciting changes coming to Life QI
15 June 2020
A major Life QI update is on the way towards the end of June 2020. The update brings with it new features as well as revamps to existing ones. Three things that immediately caught our eye are the changes to the driver diagram, optimised SPC charting functionality and a whole new whiteboard feature. Driver Diagram Driver diagrams are also being revamped. They will be more responsive and… Read More
ELFT provides second virtual training and coaching session for ‘Fast Track Cities’ Quality Improvement Collaborative to reach ‘zero’ HIV infections by 2030
11 June 2020
By Doranne McDonald and Marco Aurelio, Improvement Advisors ELFT, in collaboration with Healthy London Partnership (HLP), is supporting a quality improvement collaborative of 12 projects from voluntary and healthcare organisations across London, seeking to reduce HIV infections to ‘zero’ by 2030. Organisations part of the collaborative include: In April, 2020, the first virtual coaching session… Read More
Streamlining Internal Communication within the QI Department using MS Teams
11 June 2020
As many of us have moved to remote working, we’ve had to grapple with how we stay connected with one another when we can’t just turn around and have a conversation. For some that’s meant more emails, alongside using new tech such as Microsoft teams to have instant chats. However, in the QI Department we’ve… Read More
