In this episode of Talking Improvement, Catherine Roberts, Director of Operations, Merthyr and Cynon Integrated Locality Group and Robert Foley, Head of Patient Flow from Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board sat down with Prof. John Boulton, Director of Improvement Cymru, to highlight the ongoing work to improve patient flow and patient safety within Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.

Describing the impact of Covid and the challenges on our workforce, Catherine Roberts explained the importance of creating an approach that was supported by staff, ‘how could we create in the hospital, an approach where the chance to improve was supported and also the opportunities to fail, were not criticised. Because anyone who gets involved in improvement knows that you try some things and some things work and some things don't. But you have to create a culture where both things are acceptable, it's not only improvement is cheered and everything else is not welcome.’

Robert Foley elaborated on the impact of Covid-19 and the culture, ‘one of the things that I learned through COVID and was quite clear to hold on to was the decentralisation of power. So taking power from a central core group of people and giving it back to those who are doing the doing. And I think one of the biggest achievements that we've done is create a coming together of all of the ward managers, taking this site meeting away from a select few, and opening up that site meeting to all of the ward managers, all of our other services such as diagnostics, pharmacists, etc.’