Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, claims that nurses could double the amount of time they spend on direct patient care and slash unnecessary paperwork, as a result of a £50 m project aimed at improving efficiency on wards.
Often these are very simple ideas, such as altering patient handover time, reorganising storage facilities and making better use of data.
The programme has been piloted in four Trusts and there are 10 learning partners, one in each SHA. A further two Trusts are rolling the programme out across all of their wards. Evidence from the pilot sites shows the Productive Ward can:
• Double the amount of time nurses spend on patient care.
• Cut handover time by a third.
• Reduce medicine round time by 63%.
• Cut meal wastage rates from 7% to 1%.
Around 80% of Trusts have already signed up to the Productive Ward programme. However, only two Trusts are rolling it out across all their wards.
