East London partner Dr Stuart Sutton took part in a Twitter conversation which inspired the event with junior doctor Dr Damian Roland and Helen Bevan, chief transformation officer with NHS Improving Quality’s Horizons team.
NHS Change Day took place in March this year and has been described as ‘a force for good in the lives of tens of thousands of patients’.
The 189,000 online pledges of action included Eastern Cheshire Commissioning Consortium, which pledged to create a weekly opportunity for all staff to ask the question: ‘What have I done to help a patient this week?’.
NHS Arden Commissioning Support, working with NHS Coventry and Rugby CCG, NHS South Warwickshire CCG and NHS Warwickshire North CCG, helped a 50-strong NHS Change Day team of staff, lay members and patients to take the message out to communities and subsequently reached thousands of people.
NHS Change Day won a global challenge for management innovation prize organised by Harvard Business Review and management consultants McKinsey.
GP spoke exclusively to Dr Sutton in his east London practice days before he was due to give a bone marrow donation for an anonymous recipient.
He revealed only 1% of last year’s participants had been GPs. He said: ‘A small change can make a big difference to patients. The combination of lots of changes can have a massive impact.’
Changes that have taken place in Dr Sutton’s Beckton surgery include encouraging more patient feedback, making it easier to collect prescriptions and book appointments.
Dr Sutton added: ‘GPs are in a brilliant position to make change happen. As a partner I can make the case for change at a staff meeting and this can be implemented quickly. As well as improving things for our patients, looking at what our neighbours do could also save us time.’
GPs who want to take part on 3 March can do so at the NHS Change Day website. GP’s pledge is that we will do all we can to encourage our readers to take part. Read a full interview with Dr Sutton in our 20 January issue.
Back on the ward after #MarrowDonation - thanks to all the wonderful staff @uclh :) pic.twitter.com/KHeUDctn1o
— Stuart Sutton (@StuSutton) December 23, 2013
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