Autumn 2022 Newsletter
Welcome to Datchet Consulting’s Autumn newsletter
In 2022, Datchet Consulting has supported healthcare teams and published new theory:
PR and strategy development with a GP collaborative that has developed drive-through clinics
Strategy developing on health inequalities with a major ICS
Publication of results on costs and benefits of simulation in designing healthcare services
Publication of initial work to connect ethics with best practices in business management
In this newsletter, we will report on the drive-through clinics and the methodological development, leaving other achievements for a later newsletter.
Badger Group: Innovation
Badger Group (Birmingham and District GP Emergency Room) is an innovating social enterprise provides Out of Hours care for 1.4 million people. Under lockdown, it collaborated with a leading simulation modeller, Mr Simon Dodds (general surgeon and health care systems engineer) to deliver rapid access and drive-through face-to-face appointments. Eventually, patients could make their own bookings: wait-free consultations when they chose.
Datchet Consulting has worked with the team to spread its message with articles describing its success.
Rapid access care: how to make your call centres really work
(National Health Executive, July 2022)
Driving innovation: a case study using a simple evaluation tool (Integrated Care Journal, June 2022)
The flywheel: Silicon valley, Nightingale Hospitals and the health data system of the future (Chamber UK, April 2022)
Agile care in a time of lockdown (Health Estate Journal, April 2022)
Making the creative leap: a healthcare case study (ICJ, April 2022)
How to design and build a care system: from jargon to achievement (Chamber UK, March 2022)
In-house staff development
Datchet Consulting also ran a writing workshop to train key staff in communication, from e-mails to publications that will add to the list above.
Drawing on years of university teaching and blended learning delivery, Datchet Consulting combines reflective search with a 1-hour weekly group discussion. At the end of the course, there is a “success activity” to demonstrate learning. Sabine Parmar, Director of Workforce, comments:
“A really enjoyable time on this course. Wish we could do this every week as it allowed us to be more creative in the workplace – great learning – thanks again.”
Sabine Parmar, Director of Workforce,
Strategy support
Datchet Consulting is working with Badger to grow the successes of the past two years into continuously improving health for the people of Birmingham. Dr Fay Wilson, Medical Director, Badger Group, comments:
“I have learned a lot from Terry, and so have the team. He has helped us to realise how unusual our achievements have been and to structure our thoughts as we look to the future. He is energetic, passionate and a great writer.”
Dr Fay Wilson, Medical Director, Badger Group
Thought leadership and development of theory
Badger’s success in designing patient-led drive-through appointments relied heavily on Mr Dodds’ advanced design capability. Questing for the best way to represent the return on investment has been central to Prof Young's research, and the latest tranche of evidence was published earlier this year: Towards a framework for evaluating the costs and benefits of simulation modelling in healthcare (Soorapanth, Eldabi & Young, JORS, 2022).
The Health Service Journal also published an applied article on this: The way we design NHS buildings and services needs a radical rethink (March 2022).
It’s early days, but if these indications are borne out in subsequent experiments, then whatever you spend modelling a system upfront should return at least x10 to x30, frequently more, in savings and better health delivery.
Finally, we have published new work in a very different direction, connecting ethics to business best practice.
This model is based on Christian ethics, but we hope to extend it to reflect other faith-based and even purely secular positions. Great to Goodness: Investing in Kingdom Excellence (Hanson and Young, FiBQ, August 2022).
This work is important because companies often have no way to ensure that the ethical values they espouse are reflected in how people are treated, how sustainable their businesses are and the carbon footprint they leave behind.
If you think this would help build your business, articulate your business case, or provide an internal assessment tool, please let us know.