2016 NHS Change Day

19 October is NHS Change Day; the time to make a difference

NHS Change Day has been going since 2013, when a small group of people came up with a grassroots initiative to harness the collective will to improve things in the NHS. That first successful day of action across England has continued and grown annually. It is an opportunity for everybody who cares about the NHS to make a pledge to do something – big or small – that will change it for the better.

This year, for the first time, the event is being coordinated by the community interest organisation, The Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff, whose founder, Roy Lilley, is a former NHS Trust chair, and nationally regarded commentator and blogger. He knows where the best ideas come from:

“The best ideas come from the people actually doing the job. Right now the NHS needs all the innovation it can get. We will collect the best ones and make them available across the NHS. Last year thousands of new ideas helped to make the NHS more efficient and safer for patients. 2016 will be even better and is the beginning of a year of ideas into action.”

A new way to make your NHS Change Day pledge

This year, there is an app that’s been developed by KPMG, where anyone wants to make a pledge can record it. The new Fab Change Day app (it will open in a new browser window) will also make it easier to share pledges on social media.

New pledges are being made every day. There will be regular updates on Twitter and Periscope. To follow the action on social media follow @FabChangeDay and #100daysofchangestories.

Marking NHS Change Day with a whistlestop tour

On October 19, Roy Lilley and his team will be attempting to visit 12 health and care centres in England over 24 hours, including hospitals, a homeless centre and the London Ambulance Control Centre. They are starting in Birmingham and will end up in London – via Chester, Northumberland, Norfolk, Milton Keynes and Ashford. NHS Change Day and the ‘FabCopter’ are powered by health software providers IMS MAXIMS, who are sponsoring the helicopters and road vehicles that will achieve the marathon delivery of pledges.

People are pledging already. To date, this year’s pledges include:

• Donna McLaughlin, director of operations at Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen Hospitals University Trust, has pledged to ask people to #stubitout. As part of her pledge she will proactively challenge smokers who congregate at the entrance to the hospital.

• Professor Minsesh Khashu, consultant neonatologist at Poole Hospital Foundation Trust and his team have pledged to support women to breastfeed their babies so they can benefit from colostrum and make #everydropcount.

Recent successful campaigns that started from grassroots initiatives include:

#HelloOURaimis:

Helps patients and their carers to achieve the things that matter to them by working in partnership with those in the NHS. HelloOURaimis asks patients what is the single most important aim they want to achieve and how the people involved in their care (you, family, friends, carers, doctors, nurses, etc) can work with you to achieve this aim.

#StopThePressure:

Avoidable pressure ulcers are a key indicator of the quality of nursing care. Preventing them happening will improve all care for vulnerable patients. The ‘Stop the Pressure’ campaign was launched by NHS Midlands and East as part of their ambition to make life better for patients. The campaign is now being rolled out nationally, with NHS England, NHS Improving Quality and Haelo joining forces with other partners.

Further resources

Dr Jonathan Griffiths, GP and Chair of the Vale Royal Clinical Commissioning Group made a previous NHS Change Day pledge to spend a day in a wheelchair, to give him a better idea of how healthcare services might be made more inclusively accessible. You can listen to the podcast interview here