Supporting Patient Voices

Gillian Bardsley's story

When Gillian Bardsley had a poor experience giving birth to her daughter Jessie in February 2017 following an induction at the Royal Oldham Hospital, she was inspired to bring about change for other women.

Gillian was left with PTSD symptoms and wrote a letter of complaint which resulted in a meeting the hospital’s Head of Midwifery at the time where she shared her experience.

Gillian said: “She managed to answer the questions that I had, gave me a sense that I was heard and gave me the closure I needed following the experience.”

Gillian was then put in touch with Patient Experience Midwife Sam Whelan, learned about the plans to improve the department and quickly became engrossed in the drive for change, appearing in a patient experience video which was used for training with the maternity department.

She then began to share her story on a wider stage, including speaking at NHS Improvement Conferences in Manchester where she found out about the Patient Safety Collaborative.

Gillian continued: “I attended one of the PSC learning system events and found it interesting to learn more about the activities going on to improve birth experiences.

“It is great to see that the PSC is bringing together professionals and women together to share best practice and learn from ideas from across the network.”

Gillian has also worked with Sam to set up and chair a Maternity Voices Partnership for Rochdale and Oldham. The group, which is supported by Health Innovation Manchester, aims to give women the opportunity to help co-design and improve local maternity services.

“I am happy to report that more and more women are getting involved with the group and we are going to carry out the 15 Steps for Maternity initiative which is aimed at reporting on first impressions and delivering ideas for how we could improve things from a woman’s point of view,” Gillian said.

“The PSC have been great supporters of the group, attending our launch event, helping with materials to display at the hospital and encourage women to get involved.

“The impact of this on me has been a healing one, I feel that being heard, and having the opportunity to give back is part of the reason why I have been able to recover from the effects of the birth.

“As a service user, I would like a more workshop approach to delivering changes that would encourage women to speak up and give their views about specific change projects. There is more value we can add in that way than in any other, I believe.”

Sam added: “Health Innovation Manchester and the PSC team were a fundamental point of contact for making links with other Health Professionals across the area and supported the set-up of the Rochdale and Oldham Maternity Voices Group.

“It is fundamentally important that women’s voices are heard and suggestions for change are made so that continuous improvement can occur.

“Together Gillian and I forged a way to launch the group in May and I am looking forward to the group taking part in the ‘15 Steps’ initiative on the maternity unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

“I would encourage others to seek support from Health Innovation Manchester for their wealth of knowledge and support that they can offer for your project.”

Patient Safety during COVID-19

Supporting the system

Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Patient Safety Collaborative, hosted by Health Innovation Manchester, has continued to support the local health and care systems during the response to the COVID-19 outbreak in hospitals, care homes and the community.

This has included managing deterioration, pulse oximetry, tracheostomy safety, webinars for GPs and advice for care homes. Find out more and view available resources on the AHSN Network website here

The AHSN Network published a report on Safer care during COVID-19 in September 2020 as part of the NHS Reset campaign. It illustrates some of the creative ways PSCs supported their local systems during the pandemic and how this experience will be built into future patient safety programmes.

Included within the report are case studies about how health and care professionals from Greater Manchester worked with tech company Safe Steps to develop a UK-first digital innovation to help care homes track COVID-19 and coordinate care with GP practices, social care and hospitals to optimally support vulnerable residents. You can find out more about how Health Innovation Manchester has been involved in this work online here.

Improving tracheostomy safety

Expert blogs

During the COVID-19 pandemic more patients have required ventilation support and as a result have required temporary tracheostomies. Many of these have been cared for outside intensive care units or on COVID-19 wards by staff providing care they have never previously delivered in unfamiliar environments.

A toolkit for healthcare staff has been published by the National Tracheostomy Safety Project (NTSP) in collaboration with the AHSN Network and the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to support healthcare staff who are looking after patients with tracheostomies. Download the toolkit here.

In this blog Dr Brendan McGrath, national clinical advisor for the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes’ COVID-19 safe tracheostomy care response and intensive care consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, explains how Health Innovation Manchester and the AHSNs supported the rapid spread of safety interventions to improve care. Read the blog and watch the video

In the second of our two-part blog series about tracheostomy care, Jay Hamilton, Associate Director of Health & Implementation and Patient Safety Collaborative Lead at Health Innovation Manchester, explains the role AHSNs played in supporting the rapid spread of safety interventions. Read the blog and watch the video