To celebrate World Quality Day, the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust hosted a conference entitled “Shifting the Culture” in the Quality Improvement and Innovation Centre in Ards Hospital. Dr Francesca Cleugh, a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant and Deputy Director of Innovation and Improvement with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, was the Guest Speaker.
Dr Cleugh delivered an inspiring keynote presentation on the importance of embedding meaningful quality improvement initiatives across organisations, emphasising the need for cultural change to drive lasting impact.
The event brought together staff, leaders and quality improvement professionals to share insights and strategies for enhancing healthcare services.
The conference also featured a presentation from Pamela Fillis, South Eastern Trust Home Care Improvement Lead, who shared her experiences of modernising home care services. Her improvement journey highlighted innovative approaches to delivering patient-centred care.
Six key poster projects were showcased during a marketplace presentation. These projects, which will represent the Trust at the IHI/BMJ Quality Forum in Utrecht in May 2025, demonstrated the breadth and depth of quality improvement initiatives being undertaken within the Trust.
The poster projects were:
- Embedding a quality management system in Lakewood Secure Care Centre
- Staff culture with Central Sterile Supplies Department
- Reducing unrecognised postpartum voiding dysfunction to zero
- The Speech and Language Therapy-led ENT Parallel Clinic
- Point of entry improvements for non-urgent calls to the Urgent Primary Care GP Out of Hours service, supporting health and well-being choices for the South Eastern Trust population
- Radiology special interest group supporting patients (including promoting inclusivity and supporting patients with additional needs and/or requirements)
Guest Speaker at the event, Dr Cleugh said, “It has been a real privilege to come and share the improvement journey from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and to hear the exciting work happening across the South Eastern Trust, it is great opportunity for shared learning. Within an improvement space, there is always more we can learn and share from each other.
“Imperial College has been on an improvement journey for the past nine years, building improvement into everything we do. In the last year, we have put a real focus to understand how we can do that authentically for all our staff, so that we can make improvements and improve outcomes for patients. We are starting to see good sustained improvements in areas such as our four hour target for A&E, because staff have been given time and permission to understand the problems.
“Quality improvement is not just a process, it is about creating meaningful change that resonates with everyone in an organisation. Events like this are essential for collaborating and innovating to make that change happen.”
Director of Primary Care and Older People, Clare-Marie Dickson added, “It is so important to take time out with staff to celebrate all that is good about what we do every day, but to take that space and time to recognise the journey we have been on. The title of the conference is ‘Shifting Culture’, I believe we have been doing this for ten to fifteen years right across the Trust. For me, it is about making sure we get that right at all levels. We are already doing that and we have used new approaches such as Quality Lite linking in with our Admin and Support Services staff to encourage them to access quality improvement programmes. It is about getting in there at grass roots level and making sure that quality is everyone’s business.”
Home Care Improvement Lead, Pamela Fillis commented, “My own personal professional experience has highlighted the value of a quality improvement approach, a bit like looking through a lens to see how you are doing your work. It is looking at the facts and knowing that what we are doing is evidence-based. Quality improvement is the lens and framework to drive forward meaningful changes, so this event provides an opportunity to remind staff why we do what we do, the way we do it!
“The Home Care Reform project has been building and some of the changes have been significant in terms of volume and size, while other improvements have been small but have provided the initial building blocks. We will continue to move forward to make quality improvement enhancements to improve what is a demanding service.”