About this section
This part of the Future Hospital Journal is where you will find regular overview updates on progress made by the Future Hospital Programme of the Royal College of Physicians, together with its partners, in realising the vision of the Future Hospital Commission.
We very much welcome your feedback. If you have any comments, or would like to be involved in the work of the Programme, please contact futurehospital@rcplondon.ac.uk.
Introduction
The start of 2016 has been a whirlwind of events as we continue the Future Hospital journey of innovation and learning. In February, there was a 2-day induction event for the four new Future Hospital development sites (‘phase 2’) – North West Paediatric Allergy Network, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, North West Surrey clinical commissioning group (CCG), Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital, and a collaboration between Central Manchester Foundation Trust, University Hospital South Manchester and Central and South Manchester CCGs (Figure 1). The session was well received and characterised by enthusiastic participation. The learning session, specifically for the lay patient representatives and their Patient and Carer Network (PCN) counterparts, in March, was a day dedicated to the principles of person-centred care and exploring how to involve patients. PCN members have been instrumental in the selection of phase 2 development sites, and they will provide vital support to local patient representatives, ensuring effective patient and public involvement.
Fig 1.
Discussing Future Hospital development sites at the ‘Big conversation’, Medicine 2016, Harrogate.
Then it was on to Lancashire for the phase 1 development day and peer network sharing updates and recent learning. Then Harrogate for the Royal College of Physician’s (RCP) Medicine 2016 conference to discuss the challenges of delivering effective, person-centred integrated care with delegates and to launch the Future Hospital Partners Network. Finally, in April the Future Hospital team with development site representatives presented three posters at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Gothenburg.
Gothenburg
The International Forum is organised by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the BMJ and brought together 3,000 attendees from 80 countries ‘to support the movement for healthcare improvement’.
Posters from Mid Yorkshire and East Lancashire NHS hospital trusts reflected on the impact of early specialist assessment on the care of frail older patients. The RCP Future Hospital poster linked key preliminary data from all three English development sites on the assessment of frailty (East Lancashire), patient experience (Mid Yorkshire) and the impact on ambulatory care and readmission rates (Worthing Hospital). More importantly, this poster provided insights into implementing new ways of working; the value site teams gained from learning from each other, and the importance of patients’ being integral to project design, delivery and evaluation.
Chief registrar update
Meanwhile, the Future Hospital Programme (FHP) activity continued with the chief registrar programme, led by Gerrard Phillips, vice president for education and training, and seeing its first cohort of registrars enrolled in April. Working with the RCP Education Department and Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM), a training and development programme has been designed for chief registrars. All chief executives and medical directors in England were invited to take part in the pilot. We will evaluate the training programme, as well as the impact of the role itself, on the medical workforce and patient care. Funding for the training and development programme has been awarded by the RCP Board of Trustees and discussions are ongoing with Health Education England (HEE) and the Health Foundation to provide further support.
Integrated care
The FHP has published a review of integrated care, bringing together views from front-line physicians, hospital trainees, academics, GPs and lay partners on how the physician community, the FHP and other organisations can support, develop and deliver integrated care. This report highlights key processes and inputs that are required, and provides a valuable resource for clinicians and service leads.
Partners Network
The Future Hospital Partners Network continues to grow following a successful launch at Medicine 2016 in Harrogate (Figure 2). The Partners Network is an active and evolving network of peers, experts, academics, organisations and patients who are key supporters of Future Hospital, implementing ideas and recommendations relating to Future Hospital and sharing their findings. Through the Partners Network, the lessons learned by the FHP team and each development site will be collated and shared with other partners and more widely to spread good practice and foster system-wide improvement in the care of medical patients. We have now published the first issues of our Partners Network e-newsletter. If you would like to receive the newsletter visit www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-programme
Fig 2.
Promotional material for the Future Hospital Partners Network.
Tell us your story
Launched at Medicine 2015 in Harrogate, the Tell us your story initiative has grown steadily in the last 12 months. Clinicians and healthcare professionals tell us their stories of success and this is the mechanism through which the FHP gathers examples of service improvement, sharing innovative ideas and inspiring others, using the experiences and ideas of others. The FHP aims to promote clinically led improvement and to inspire others within the NHS to do the same. Look out for them on Twitter or visit www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/future-hospital-case-studies-tell-us-your-story to read the published stories and to download a form to submit your own.