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 Future Hospital Programme (FHP) is working closely with the Royal College of Physicians’ (RCP) Education Department and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management on the chief registrar project; a flagship scheme that highlights the RCP's commitment to nurturing and developing the trainee workforce.
The chief registrar project
In the Future Hospital Commission report,1 published in 2013, the RCP put forward an ambitious vision for how hospitals of the future should operate, emphasising the need to advance care of patients by putting them at the centre for everything we do. A key recommendation of the report was to harness the expertise of experienced trainees in the delivery of high-quality, safe, patient-centred care.
The Future Hospital chief registrar scheme is testament to the RCP's continuing commitment to valuing, supporting and motivating trainees. Led in collaboration with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and the RCP Education Department, the FHP is piloting the role of chief registrar to determine the skills, protected time and training needed to support this new leadership position.
Quality improvement leaders and champions
Chief registrars remain in clinical practice while completing their 12-month post and training and management education programme. By remaining in practice, chief registrars can help to develop practical solutions to local problems that are specific to their trusts. The scheme galvanises future clinical leaders to be the innovators and improvers within their organisations.
In the first cohort for 2016–17, 21 chief registrars took up post in hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These chief registrars are overseeing projects relating to:
service redesign
workforce transformation
quality improvement
patient safety
education and training.
The FHP aspires to facilitate the evolution of an NHS that supports effective delivery of high-quality, person-centred care, while ensuring the welfare and ongoing development of its workforce (Box 1). Recruitment for the 2017–18 chief registrar cohort is well underway. For more information about the role of chief registrar, visit the RCP website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-chief-registrar.
Box 1.
Case study – Dr Jamie Kitt, chief registrar, Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
| During my time as a chief registrar I have played a key role in implementing changes that directly improve patient care: |
| I sought to reduce waiting timesfor patients in A&E/the emergency department (ED) by referring them to ambulatory care where appropriate. |
| By reducing the number of patients on the acute take(through appropriate transfer to ambulatory care) and by having earlier senior input in the ED for those referred to medicine, it is reducing the pressure on our services. |
| Simulation training programmes have been reinforcedfor trainees in the essential procedures which should be completed before starting ST3 training. |
Future Hospital development sites
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Joined up health and social care services
At the beginning of December, the second phase Future Hospital development sites – which were recruited in January 2016 – travelled to Manchester to visit the integrated respiratory project led by multidisciplinary teams across central and south Manchester. During the visit, teams heard invaluable insight into how integrated care projects – those that put the patient first and offer joined up solutions to their health and care needs – make a lasting difference to a person's quality of life.
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Celebration of phase 1
December also marked the 2-year anniversary of the phase 1 sites’ collaboration with the FHP. To celebrate this milestone, the FHP invited all four sites, who have been working hard to improve the care of frail and older people in their areas, to present their progress to date to a diverse audience of national clinical leaders, health and social care representatives and policymakers.
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Year of consolidation
2017 is the final year of the programme. It will provide all development site teams with the opportunity to have their work externally evaluated.
Box 2.
Thinking in systems: collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering
| The Future Hospital Programme was invited to join a collaborative project, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, that sought to better understand how systems engineering might be appropriately applied and embedded in the process of transforming the NHS. As part of the project, the Future Hospital Programme has been involved in co-designing a systems approach framework for healthcare, which was published at the beginning of 2017. |
Partners Network
Through the Partners Network, the FHP continues to share the lessons learned by the programme and the Future Hospital development sites. The growing network of peers, experts, academics, organisations and patients, who are key supporters of the Future Hospital vision, receive a monthly newsletter that collates and spreads good practice and fosters examples of system-wide improvement in the care of medical patients.
To join the Partners Network and receive our monthly newsletter, visit www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-partners-network or contact the FHP team via futurehospital@rcplondon.ac.uk
Tell us your story
Through the Tell us your story initiative, the FHP is collecting stories from clinicians on the ground who have led their own successful service improvement projects. In his story, Dr Richard Gilpin lays out the process for initiating an organised quality improvement project run by trainees at Withybush Hospital.
Building on the knowledge that trainees are in an informed position to aid process mapping in quality improvement projects, the project recognises that this arm of the workforce has the breadth of experience from hospital rotations to find solutions to process failings.
Key recommendations:
Create a quality improvement forum to identify problematic areas within your service of care and draw up viable answers to these problems.
Appoint a quality improvement lead so that the forum's endeavours can be coordinated, with a singular point of contact, to provide support and encouragement to forum participants. This will also help to ensure sustainability.
The complete library of stories can be found in our online library on the RCP website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/future-hospital-your-stories
If you'd like to tell us your story, contact the FHP team at futurehospital@rcplondon.ac.uk.
Box 3.
How to get involved
| If you have any comments or would like to be involved in the work of the Future Hospital Programme, we would very much like to hear from you. Please contact futurehospital@rcplondon.ac.uk |