A look back and a look forward with Dr John Boulton

Dr John Boulton, Director of NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety & Director of Improvement Cymru

On 25 and 26 November over 650 attendees from across Wales got together in Cardiff for the launch of Improvement Cymru. We catch up with Dr John Boulton, Director of Improvement Cymru and NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety to find out what his key reflections were from the event.

Thank you to everyone you joined us in person and on social media for the launch of Improvement Cymru, we really appreciate it. The support and positivity towards the relaunch from across the whole nation has been both humbling and inspiring.

Together we have become Improvement Cymru; and by ‘we’ I mean all of us who work together to improve the system for the people of Wales.

Since the Parliamentary Review and the publication of A Healthier Wales we have been working on rebranding the 1000 Lives Improvement service. During this time we realised we needed to do more than this – we needed to rebrand the way we think about Improvement in Wales. To raise the profile of Improvement, to enable more people to see how Improvement can be a powerful vehicle to enable transformation.

The additional investment from Welsh Government will enable Improvement Cymru to take this forwards, working in partnership with leaders and improvers across health and care. Together we can improve, we can achieve and we can make things better for the people of Wales – to help create a healthier Wales.

As I stood on the stage and looked out, I saw room filled with people who have a real passion for improvement. As a father, husband and son I want great care for my family. And as a physician I always wanted to provide great to the patients that I served.

It was really exciting to bring people together to discuss how we can achieve this. Thank you to the 96 people from across Wales who are presenting and sharing your Improvement expertise and experience. We heard from a wide range of speakers, including a thought provoking panel discussion on the future of Improvement in Wales.

I also had some fantastic conversations with people and was inspired by the collective ambition and buzz about improvement.

One of the most exciting developments is our partnership with the Q Initiative at The Health Foundation to develop and launch the Q Lab Cymru in the spring. Q Lab Cymru will be a team and a space within Improvement Cymru, supporting those working on key priorities to learn, experiment and adjust programmes so they can connect as well as possible with the reality of change on the ground and have even greater impact. Q Lab Cymru will be developed with, and is inspired by, the Q Improvement Lab, which has developed ways to build momentum and make progress on some of the most complex issues facing health and care.

2020 is set to be a big year for Improvement Cymru. I look forward to having conversations with you and working together to take this forwards. Again, thank you for all of your hard work and I look forward to progressing on our all-Wales Improvement journey with you. It will not always be easy but together we can achieve a healthier Wales.

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