Effecting a national implementation project through distributed leadership in the West Midlands: rising to the spread challenge

James Gillies; Victoria A Hodgetts Morton; Simone Jasim; Caroline Fox; Penny Broggio; Thillagavathie Pillay

doi:10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001227

Effecting a national implementation project through distributed leadership in the West Midlands: rising to the spread challenge

BMJ Open Qual. 2021 May;10(2):e001227. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001227.

Authors

James Gillies¹, Victoria A Hodgetts Morton², Simone Jasim¹, Caroline Fox³, Penny Broggio⁴, Thillagavathie Pillay^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ NHS Improvement, NHS England, Birmingham, UK.
² Obstetrics, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.
³ Obstetrics, Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.
⁴ Paediatrics, Birmingham City Hospital, Birmingham, UK.
⁵ Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK t.pillay@wlv.ac.uk.
⁶ Neonatology, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK.

Abstract

We describe the utility and impact of a distributed leadership model to implement a National Health Service (NHS) England Academic Health Sciences national quality improvement programme, in the West Midlands. This model was adopted to address the inherent difficulties of implementing change in practice in a large geographical region with a diverse population of health service personnel. We report on the inclusion of a senior trainee as part of the implementation team, supported by a multidisciplinary clinical consultant team, with equal agency in decision making, acting as mentors and activators in the background.

Keywords: efficiency; health services research; healthcare quality improvement; leadership; organizational; quality improvement methodologies.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

England / epidemiology
Humans
Leadership*
Quality Improvement
State Medicine*