Using Lean to uncover, understand and prioritise opportunities for change in the NHS

This paper shares the findings and practitioner experiences of an on-going service improvement project within a National Health Service trust that specialises in providing secondary mental health services in the North of England. In particular, the study will focus on a review of the operational processes and performance of the Trist’s Single Point of Access service (SPA) – a clinical decision-making function and the gateway for patients into the Trist’s series.

The study will outline how Lean thinking was used to engage the workforces from the bottom up to develop an understanding of the incumbent processes, reveal and understand inconsistent and inefficient ways of working, and identify and prioritise improvement opportunities to inform future service redesign efforts.

*this paper is part of FMLM and CMI's Learning Leadership Library - a resource containing books, journals, articles and modular training on Leadership and Management for FMLM members.