Ding, ding – round 2!
Three new teams have been awarded funding by Newham Council to carry out projects that aim to provide even better care and services to our patients. Each team will be provided funding to carry out a pilot project that helps address a non-medical, social factor they know is negatively impacting our service user’s health or experience at our hospital.
The teams will use quality improvement (QI) methods in their projects and will be supported by our hospital QI team and the council’s public health team in the development, delivery and evaluation of their projects. Read on to find out more about their projects:
Providing access to information:
Our colleagues in maternity know that many of our Bengali community who choose to have their baby with us express concerns and anxiety about having an epidural. The team want to change that and make sure these patients can access information about epidurals in a meaningful way, so they can make the best decision for them.
The project will explore different ways to answer patients’ questions or concerns, including testing fortnightly sessions with a Bengali speaking anaesthetist. The anaesthetist will explain the benefits and risks of having an epidural to our Bengali pregnant patients and answer any questions or concerns they or their partner, might have. Their overall aim is to improve patient engagement, satisfaction and experience. The project is a collaboration between anaesthesia, obstetrics and midwifery and addresses the social determinant of language and culture.
Supporting those who miscarry:
Our maternity and obstetrics colleagues want to develop a support group for patients who have miscarried. Through interactions with this group, our colleagues have identified that many of the women feel isolated and demoralised after their loss. The team want to facilitate a space for these people to come together to share experiences, lean on each other and find solace in the fact that this is not an uncommon situation.
The project looks to pilot a programme of weekly sessions over 3 months, with new cohorts of patients coming together throughout the year. Three-quarters of the sessions will be unstructured, where people can talk about whatever feels pressing for them that day, with the final session of the month being dedicated to a speaker or a well-being activity such as mindfulness or even training for building confidence in the workplace. This project addresses the social determinant of social isolation.
Better support for regular attendants:
Colleagues in our emergency department (ED) know some patients come to ED for care and support on a regular basis, in many cases, because they don’t know where else to go to get support. Through their project, this team will work with these individuals to support them in finding help through more appropriate services. In addition, they recognise that these patients can often be unintentionally stigmatised.
To stop this, the team will work with service users through our people participation leads to raise awareness among colleagues and develop educational content about the reasons these individuals attend regularly, how they often have complex needs such as mental health problems or learning disabilities, and how staff can recognise the trauma they may have experienced. This project will address the social determinants of discrimination, healthcare access, and social isolation (as well as others), while also aiming to address unmet need.