Plymouth NHS staff pledge improvements for national Change Day
NHS Staff from Plymouth are gearing up to try and beat the number of improvement pledges made on last year’s NHS Change Day.
NHS Change Day – taking place this year on 3 March – is a frontline ‘Call to Action’ for NHS staff, patients and the public, started by clinicians and improvement leaders. The idea is to get as many people as possible to pledge to do one thing to make the NHS better. Pledges can be big or small, personal or professional but must make a difference to patient care.
Last year NHS staff in the region made 31,482 pledges, many more from other healthcare workers, patients and their families. As the countdown begins to 3rd March, the NHS Change Day team is urging people in the region to beat last year’s numbers. The South West was the region with the most pledges last year and staff are being urged to safeguard the position of the top spot this year.
Already this year people in the region have pledged to make a positive change on 3 March, including:
• A pledge from a care home owner to improve dementia care through encouraging greater integration of services
• A pledge from a learning difficulties specialist to ensure that patients at home care is improved
• A pledge from a member of the charity Downs Side Up, a Downs syndrome charity to share innovation and best practice with NHS colleagues
Kim Pascoe (Dorset Healthcare Trust) who has already pledged “to have the courage of my convictions and to start a campaign to raise public awareness of the staffing (Registered Nurse) shortages that exist throughout the NHS” this year, said: “As a worker in the NHS exposed to my fair share of negative media stories, being involved in NHS Change Day is inspiring. The fact that you don’t need to ask anyone’s permission – you just think of something you’d like to see done better, make a promise to yourself to do something about it, and do it.
“Pledges can be big or small, serious or fun – just as long as you think your pledge will make a positive difference to someone. I try to remember that just a simple smile has the power to change how someone remembers a conversation, an appointment or even a whole day!”
“I can’t wait to make my own small difference again in March and will certainly be encouraging my friends, family and colleagues to do the same.”
New survey shows support for staff
NHS Change Day comes at the perfect time for Plymouth as a new national study - carried out as part of the run up to Change Day 2014 - reveals that 56% of people in the city put their greatest trust in frontline staff to protect the future of the NHS, ahead of NHS management and politicians.
As Change Day invites the public to join in the pledging for the first time this year, the study also suggests a number of ways in which people in Plymouth could get involved.
More than nine out of ten people questioned in the survey acknowledged they could help make the NHS better by not missing scheduled appointments (96%), more than eight out of ten recognised only going to A&E for a genuine emergency (86%) would make a difference, while just under half opted for keeping themselves healthy (42%).
A third (33%) believe that celebrating what the NHS does well and saying thank you, rather than focusing on faults, would improve the overall quality of services.
Asked to identify the main areas for improvement, better accessibility of care (67%) came out top, while getting help to/from hospital and other appointments (33%), increased availability of medicine/ equipment (33%) and improved staff attitude and understanding to patients (33%) could all herald a better service in the city.
Kirstie Stott, part of a regional network to drive pledges on the ground, whose pledge is to work hard to ensure greater diversity in senior NHS positions which will allow greater representation of the patients it serves, said: “It’s always fascinating to see what people would improve about the NHS if they had a magic wand – which is why we wanted to take this regional snapshot as part of NHS Change Day.
“Change Day is the chance for everyone who cares about our NHS – staff, patients and anyone else who values what it stands for – to pledge to do one thing to make it better.
“It’s about making the little things add up to something really powerful. For example, one patient won’t make better access via technology happen overnight, but if thousands of people pledge on Change Day to tell their GP they’d prefer to have a ‘virtual’ appointment from home, mindsets will begin to change and it could become a reality.”
NHS Change Day pledges are already having a big impact. Example pledges from around the rest of the country last year include:
• A paediatrician who tasted the medicines he was prescribing to his patients and, when he realised many of them were pretty unpalatable, started working with his pharmacy to change the flavour;
• A student nurse who set up a mock ward so students could experience care from the patient’s perspective, which has now been added to the university curriculum;
• A GP who spent the day in a wheelchair to understand how his disabled patients felt;
• A doctor’s surgery where staff switched off the electronic message board for a day and asked for patients by name to re-engage with them.
To find out more or make your own pledge for NHS Change Day, go to www.changeday.nhs.uk
