South West invests in Patient Safety

Eighty-eight health and care professionals have graduated from the South West Academic Health Science Network’s Patient Safety Launch Pad.
The training programme aims to improve patient safety skills in hospitals, GP practices, community services and mental health and care organisations in the region. It was hosted by the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) and Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC), sponsored by NHS Improvement and delivered through regional and national experts in patient safety and quality improvement (QI). The five-day programme was spread across nine months and was held at venues in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
The programme is designed to increase delegates’ confidence and ability to initiate change and lead improvement projects within their organisation. It also encouraged and demonstrated the benefit of collaborative working alongside colleagues, other teams and services, and across organisational boundaries.
Watch a short overview of the programme, with feedback and learning points from some graduates:

Throughout the course, delegates attended sessions focused around: the system for improvement; measurement for improvement; building a safer culture; teamwork and human factors; and spread, adoption and sustainability. Delegates received access to resources including: Life QI, an online platform which guides users through creating improvement projects; the safety culture survey; virtual reality headsets; and topic-focused webinars between sessions to support the implementation of a patient safety or QI plan at ward, unit, hospital or system level.
Day five was led by William Lilley, Patient Safety Collaborative Manager at the SW AHSN, and Jonathan Broad, Patient Safety – Patient Leader at QIPI.
Professor Jonathon Gray, Chief Executive at the SW AHSN, delivered a talk on spread and adoption. He explained, “I am extremely proud of this latest group of people dedicated to patient safety who have committed so much time and energy to the Launch Pad training. We discussed the typical pitfalls and challenges which arise when trying to spread change in health and care, and encouraged delegates to use these as keys to success, rather than barriers.”
Five participants shared their experience and the barriers they had to overcome when implementing improvement projects in their organisations, some of which were developed earlier in the programme. They formed a Q&A panel for delegates, which was hosted and facilitated by: Joanne Watson, Deputy Medical Director at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust; Michael Walburn, Consultant Anaesthetist at Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust; and Helen Smith, Medical Director at Devon Partnership Trust.
Matt Hill, Consultant Anaesthetist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, challenged everyone to take a more positive approach to rethinking and talking about safety. Participants tested the Culture Toolkit which is being developed by the SW AHSN, and learnt what drivers of culture and engagement could help sustain change.
The programme received great feedback from delegates. Liz Berry, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “Very excited about how we can improve care across Somerset. I feel we have reached a tipping point for working across boundaries/organisations.”
The presentations from day five can be found on our website here. You can also read about the success of the first and second sessions in the series. If you are interested in future patient safety or QI opportunities, please email patientsafety@swahsn.com