More than 100 staff from across NHS Forth Valley came together at Forth Valley Royal Hospital for the third Safer Together Learning Session. The event brought healthcare professionals and quality improvement leaders together to share progress, explore practical strategies, and learn from each other’s successes.
Chief Executive Ross McGuffie opened the session, before Director of Quality, Dr Chris Rodger and Director of Nursing, Prof Karen Goudie presented the latest data. They highlighted strong progress across the workstreams, including early deliverables, improved efficiency and collaboration and tangible benefits for patients. Karen also stressed the importance of building relationships and networks to share learning and spread improvement.
Learning Through Experience
Each workstream showcased their progress in small group sessions. Presentations demonstrated how even small changes can deliver a big impact. For example, Ward A11 shared how simply switching drinks options to decaffeinated choices has helped reduce falls – a reminder that sometimes the smallest adjustments can make the greatest difference.
Teams also shared next steps and challenges, such as capacity pressures, increasing patient acuity and the time demands of manual data collection.
Quality and Safety
Guest speaker Johnathan O’Reilly, Head of Quality Improvement at NHS Golden Jubilee, praised the pace of progress. Having previously been part of a Safety Collaborative, he was impressed to see visible improvements in outcomes already by the third Learning Session. He encouraged teams to think about spread and sustainability as they move into the next period and to collaborate more widely to drive shared improvements.
Closing Reflections
The event closed with feedback from Executive Nurse Director Prof Frances Dodd, who emphasised how far the workstreams have come and the vital role of strong relationships in making change possible. She highlighted that trust, shared purpose and collaboration are not just helpful but essential for embedding sustainable improvement.
The day left participants energised, with a clear sense of progress and a shared commitment to continue building on what has been achieved so far.
