NHS Lanarkshire has launched Operation FLOW – a positive and ambitious plan to reduce service pressures and improve patient care and experience.
Plans are developing rapidly across the whole health and care system in Lanarkshire to reset our system to improve flow through our acute hospitals.
Flow refers to the way patients move through a hospital, from admission to discharge. Improving hospital flow can lead to better patient outcomes, increased capacity, improved staff satisfaction, and improved patient safety. It can also help reduce wait times and improve overall patient satisfaction.
Operation FLOW (Focused, Lanarkshire, Optimal, Whole System) is divided into three stages: Stage 1, Preparation & Reset, which is currently underway; Stage 2, Firebreak, which will take place from 23 February to 3 March 2023; and Stage 3, Maintaining Good Flow, which will involve the implementation of a new flow model.
A vital part of Operation FLOW is the coordinated effort currently underway across our services to prepare for the short-term firebreak. This is a powerful package of actions to quickly ease the current pressures across our three acute hospitals over a nine-day period.
The firebreak will stabilise acute hospital services by reinforcing and building on the successful measures NHS Lanarkshire have already put in place, and introducing further targeted and focused actions.
Professor Jann Gardner, Chief Executive of NHS Lanarkshire, said: “Operation FLOW is a hugely exciting opportunity to make the improvements our patients and staff need in the face of the challenges experienced not just in Lanarkshire, but in health and care services across the country.
“Crucially, Operation FLOW is based on tried and tested approaches. It’s about taking the approaches that we know will work and make a difference, and putting them together in a coordinated and focused way that brings the maximum benefit to our patients and staff.
“While the firebreak is really important to what we are doing and will bring immediate benefits, its greatest value is that it will free up the capacity and energy needed to bring about sustainable improvements to our services – improvements that will make our whole health and care system more robust and resilient in the face of future periods of pressure.
“Introducing a new flow model and maintaining good flow will make a massive difference to our patients and staff experience every day.”
Operation FLOW is a whole-system approach that involves NHS Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire and the Scottish Ambulance Service working together closely.
Professor Gardner said: “By working together, we want to be able to get patients coming through our emergency departments seen, treated and either admitted or discharged as quickly as possible. At the same time, we need to be able to discharge patients, who are clinically fit, to their own home or another appropriate care setting.
“The safety and wellbeing of not only our patients, but our staff, who have been at the forefront of the current pressures, remains our priority.
“Thank you to all our staff and GPs for their continued efforts to improve our services and provide the best care we can. We have a fantastic team in NHS Lanarkshire and everyone’s support is crucial to making this a success. I’m delighted by the energy and enthusiasm everyone is already bringing to this important opportunity.”
Further information is available on our website at https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/operationflow/
Pic: Professor Jann Gardner, Chief Executive of NHS Lanarkshire at University Hospital Monklands
