The Lean Healthcare Academy is an innovative concept developed by Ilkley based Virtual College, who, over the last 5 years, have successfully established and operated Yorkshire Productivity. Yorkshire Productivity works with over 60 manufacturing companies within the region, helping them to make concrete business gains through the adoption of Lean. Customers include a number of well know names such as: RAF Lyneham, Marshalls, Black & Decker, Ronseal, David Brown, Remploy, & Kerry Foods. In addition to our Yorkshire Productivity division, Virtual College has been pioneering the adoption of e-learning within the NHS and this month will reach its 20,000th NHS learner.

From Rod Knox, Chief Executive of Virtual College Limited

"Over the last 10 years Virtual College has established itself as one of the UK's leading providers of blended learning, having developed a range of innovative e-learning solutions that are used across both public and private sector organisations to help enhance the traditional approach to learning.

In 2001 we established Yorkshire Productivity as a vehicle to help drive productivity improvements, within the region's manufacturing sector, through the adoption of Lean. To-date we have helped 100s of businesses and trained over 10,000 individuals in the principles of Lean and how to apply them to achieve real business improvements. Over the same period, through our TIGER initiative, we have worked with over 100 NHS Trusts and more than 20,000 NHS learners, who have utilised our e-solution for their Information Governance training.

The Lean Healthcare Academy is the result of these two success stories coming together to create a powerful and engaging solution to ensure rapid adoption of Lean techniques within the healthcare sector. I am particularly grateful to our founder partner Airedale NHS Trust, for showing significant enthusiasm and commitment to helping establish the Lean Healthcare Academy and for providing the facilities from which the academy can operate. The Academy provides a tremendous opportunity for those working within the healthcare sector to gain a thorough understanding of Lean and how it can be successfully applied within the public sector.

One of the key objectives of the Lean Healthcare Academy is to create a membership vehicle that engages healthcare organisations in a process which encourages the sharing of ideas, and the creation of new learning tools which can facilitate Lean, which in-turn, result in significant benefits to all involved. We are passionate in believing that the adoption of Lean principles will be fundamental in achieving a sustainable, continuous improvement process within the healthcare sector and we look forward to working with the organisations that share this passion".

Rod Knox