A decision was taken in November 2017 at the Patient Experience Group (PEG) to be bold and courageous and co-produce a new strategy rather than tweak the existing strategy that had been published in 2016.
A task and finish working group was established as a sub-group of the PEG was established with the aim of starting with a blank canvas and with fresh eyes starting with what matters to patients. hospital Trusts. The Trust signed up and attended the cohort launch event in London March 2018. Using quality improvement methodology developed by the Institute of Health Improvement (IHI), NHS England have developed an excellent programme of support and coaching for cohort members.
We decided to use a quality improvement framework based on an ‘Always Events’ methodology. According to the definition, Always Events help health care providers, in partnership with patients, care partners, and service users, to identify, develop, and achieve reliability in person- and family-centred care delivery processes. North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is the first in the country to work in partnership with a local Healthwatch, adopting an Always Events framework to shape a strategic direction of an organisation as opposed to only delivering improvements at a point-of-care.
As a result of adapting the Always Events methodology, we have:
- established a multi-stakeholder group that involves patients, nursing staff, doctors, communications experts and soft facilities providers who took ownership of embedding co-design and accountability to local communities.
- collected over 800 instances of feedback from patients, carers and families to co-design strategic objectives for the Patient Experience Strategy. This is a twentyfold increase on the patient involvement previously.
- developed the role of a ‘Community Ambassador’ – individuals working with the Trust to articulate and test new initiatives and ideas, acting as an ongoing link to local communities, not a one-off interaction Healthwatch Enfield and Haringey were invited along with other members of the Patient Experience Group to work collaboratively with North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust since the need for updating the existing Patient Experience Strategy was first articulated.
Together, we have also:
- attended the Always Events training alongside our colleagues from the hospital to ensure we had a shared understanding of the approach and toolkit
- met monthly at the ‘co-design sub-group’ that oversees patient involvement in shaping the new Patient Experience Strategy
- co-designed the approach of engaging with patients, their carers and families to articulate the objectives of the new Patient Experience Strategy
- supported the Trust with community outreach activities to ensure that views of diverse and seldom heard communities are collected and considered
- co-designed internal and external communications materials including #AlwaysAtNorthMid advocated for recognition and payment of ‘Community Ambassadors’ and co-designed relevant payment processes.
We will continue working throughout the lifecycle of the new Patient Experience Strategy to:
- support recruitment of ‘Community Ambassadors’
- work alongside teams to articulate and deliver their point-of-care patient experience initiatives
- monitor the implementation of the strategy through our involvement with Patient Experience Group at the Trust
The innovative quality improvement project of co-production has been nominated in the Healthwatch England Awards by Enfield Hearhwatch . Claire Marshall, Experience of Care Professional Lead at NHS England has supported and endorsed the Always Events work and award nomination and stated: “What sets the Trust apart from others in its approach is the work undertaken with Enfield Healthwatch.