A glimpse into NHS IMPACT

Ailsa Brotherton, Executive Director of Improvement, Research and Innovation at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, shares her insights into the groundbreaking NHS IMPACT initiative, highlighting its potential to reshape healthcare in England

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on NHS England

“I’m feeling both inspired and optimistic about the once in a generation opportunity that has been created by NHS IMPACT (Improving Patient Care Together) to mainstream improvement across our NHS in England. I have been privileged to join several forums recently where Professor Sir Chris Ham has both presented the findings from his recent report and facilitated conversations with system leaders about creating the best possible conditions for success.

Two things have resonated with me from these discussions. The first is the magnitude of what we are trying to achieve. Chris describes how no other country in the world has attempted improvement on this scale in such a complex environment. This is exciting, another great example of the NHS leading globally. However, with this comes a huge responsibility as I commit to remember the advice from Chris that we will need to do more over time to emulate the successes of countries doing this on a smaller scale. He reinforced that to create the conditions for success we need to create optimism, hope and belief.

It’s particularly vital to hold onto these positive drivers as we keep in mind a very challenging reality for the NHS – stretched budgets, workforce challenges and long waiting lists.  It’s the ability of improvement to respond to these challenges in a way that engages staff positively that will enable us to genuinely mainstream improvement, as described in this recent Health Foundation briefing.

The second takeaway is the critical importance of peer-to-peer support when creating a learning system. The way in which partners across the country are taking the learning from empirical evidence and designing support offers for those leading this work across our systems is fundamental in creating the conditions for success.

So many of our leaders have engaged in completing the NHS IMPACT self-assessment and are focused on how we can intelligently learn from the best across the health and care sector, as they plan the next stage of their work, maximising the impact of their improvement capacity and capability in drafting their development plans. The NHS IMPACT team are currently collating examples of best practice so do access the resources available and please do share your work with us.

We will be contacting NHS organisations through your improvement teams to find out more about the work which you’re doing and to see if there is any support you need in facilitating a conversation with your board or system about creating the conditions for success for improvement, so please engage with your improvement teams and start to think about how we could support you in your organisation or system.”

Ailsa Brotherton’s insights emphasise the importance of collective learning, optimism, and peer support to create the conditions for success in healthcare improvement. Click here to find out more.