Pioneers are lean and mean on waste (From Keighley News)

Pioneers are lean and mean on waste

8:27am Thursday 6th December 2007

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Airedale NHS Trust has honoured its "lean champions".

The champs - a ten-strong group of volunteers working in different fields at Airedale Hospital - have gained the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) NVQ Level 2.

The qualification is delivered widely in manufacturing to streamline operational procedures and boost productivity but this is among the first in the NHS.

Co-ordinated by the Lean Healthcare Academy, the programme was purpose-designed to help the champions implement and sustain activities focussing on the elimination of wasteful practices and enhancement of patient care.

In a ceremony at the hospital chief executive Adam Cairns presented certificates.

Recipients were service and business improvement manager Joanne Davy, head of organisational development Jessica Isherwood, theatre manager Helene Barnes, work-based learning officer Melvyn Ingham-Dempster, charge nurse Noel McEvoy, linen service manager Phil Liversidge, health records supervisor Tracy Tarpy, senior personnel officer Lisa Grylls, ward clerk Val Bell and Sarah Ellis, of the Lean Healthcare Academy.

Mr Cairns told the champions: "I cannot over-estimate the importance of your achievements and am so proud of the pioneering work we are doing here. However, we are just scratching the surface at the moment and it remains vital that we continue to build on our initial lean successes by rolling them out more widely across the trust and getting our people to work and co-operate even more efficiently and effectively together.

This will not only help in our ongoing efforts to reduce waiting times but also to raise the safety, quality and delivery of our patient care in general."

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