July 23, 2015 Industry news
Speaking at our healthcare conference, Ashley Brooks gives his inspirational view of what culture change and standardisation in the NHS mean in practice.
Ashley Brooks is National Patient Champion sponsored by the Department of Health. He has devoted the last ten years of his life helping to improve the patient experience in the NHS.
In his role as patient champion, Ashley works with NHS organisations to engage with staff and patients.
He kicked-off his speech by referencing the NHS constitution.
The NHS belongs to us all. The NHS belongs to the people.
It is there to improve our health and well-being, supporting us to keep mentally and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we cannot fully recover, to stay as well as we can to the end of our lives. It works at the limits of science-bringing the highest levels of human knowledge and skill to save lives and improve health. It touches our lives at times of basic human need, when care and compassion are what matter most.
Only 2% of the people Brooks talks to in his role as patient champion know that the NHS Constitution exists. Brooks believes that the standardisation of the NHS starts with a change of culture across the NHS. Hospitals could have the best processes in system, but if people don’t want to implement standards, the NHS cannot reach its full potential.
The NHS constitution absolutely sums up the reason why we are here and I think it absolutely sums up why GS1 needs to be involved.”
Ashley Brooks, National Patient Champion
World-class care
Brooks talks from his own experience being treated for Leukaemia 13 years ago at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in Central London, where he received world-class care. Unfortunately, his care wasn’t so good elsewhere. He was treated in a general hospital near where he lived and the care wasn’t anywhere near world class. He almost died at that hospital when he suffered from an episode of MRSA caused by someone not washing their hands properly.
This is why he is now devoted to standardising care and safety across the NHS. The buildings, the beds, the wards, the drugs… they are all basically the same. The only thing that was different in his treatment was the staff. For Ashley, nearly dying from something that was avoidable was the trigger to make a change.
Finding the trigger
Ashley emphasises that, if we want people to implement GS1 standards, we need to explain why they should do it. By changing the culture, by making people proud of working for the NHS and by finding their trigger, we can implement standardisation and improve the NHS.
The only standard we really need to worry about is how we affect people’s lives: our colleagues, our staff and our patients. We’re only here, all of us, for the patients of the NHS.”
Ashley Brooks, National Patient Champion