The trouble with Blogging is you have to do it regularly! I've been too busy working to write down what I have been doing! Who would have thought that February could have been so busy!

Just finished the final session with a local trust looking a guidance for Haematology and Oncology blood tests. The idea is to look and see if there is any scope to optimse the requesting of blood tests by Consultants and Junior Doctors. The initial results look good, with Oncology we have developed guidance for the Consultants in Clinic and the Junior Doctors on the Ward. When I say we I mean they provided all the technical input and I made it look pretty on one side of A4. When the last 7 patients through the door were compared  to the proposed guidance the 7 patients had an astonishing 39 additional tests more than the guidance suggests. Once ratified and trained out the team hopes to smash the 10% reduction in blood test requesting while also making sure all the required test are done.

I was privileged to speak at the Yorkshire and Humberside SHA's 18 week Lead meeting on the 8th of February. The presentation was recorded so for those that have never heard me speak an audio version as well as the presentation are available from Laura Hibbs at the SHA. It was nice to be joined on stage by Chris Rooke from Scarborough NHS to talk about the successes that are coming from the work we started with them late last year. It was great to hear good news from Scarborough Hospital, it's been a bit thin on the ground of late. I covered some of the common themes we see in redesigning OP pathways for 18 weeks, there is a certain inevitability about the ultimate outcome of a daily consultant reviewed DBS system with paper referrals reduced to non GP (school nurse, optician etc). It always seems to be the desired future state for the difficult pathways.

Hugely exiting times at Airedale our partner with Sue Speak (susan.speak@anhst.nhs.uk) taking up her secondment as full time Head of Lean Improvement reporting to the Chief Executive.

More training tomorrow, an open course with people from Stockport, Hull and Airedale on Process Flow, Thursday is looking at the Pre-operative assesment pathway with the team, supporting the BIT NVQ champions in their foot clinic mapping in the afternoon, Friday is with the MHRA alerts team in the morning and the HR recruitment team in the afternoon! When have I the time to write another blog??