Socrates, the habits of improvers and the importance of good communication were all discussed at the first Q Community North West Book Club event.

Members of The Health Foundation’s prestigious Q Community in the region gathered at Imperial War Museum North for the first of five exciting ‘Book Club’ sessions on 12 April.

The sessions, in partnership with AQuA and hosted by Health Innovation Manchester, embrace the Q Community principles of helping members to develop, inspire, innovate and problem-solve.

The first session focused on ‘Communication for Improvement’ and featured an engaging and informative presentation from Health Innovation Manchester’s Senior Communications Officer Natalie Balmain.

Natalie explained the role communications can play in improvement, discussed the impact poor communications can have in the health service and shared her top tips for effective communications.

Natalie said: “Communications play a critical part in improvement and it is important to recognise the benefits of developing an effective communications strategy.

“Good communication not only improves the safety of the procedures we currently have in place, but is a catalyst for the adoption and spread of new practices, treatments and innovations that will improve outcomes for everyone, not just patients.”

Q Community members were also able to share their thoughts and discuss the first two books of the programme — ‘The habits of an improver’ by Bill Lucas with Hadjer Nacer and The Health Foundation’s ‘Using communication approaches to spread improvement’.

A live blog of the day is available to view here.

The next Q Community Book Club event will focus on influencing and will take place on 3 May.

This is a fantastic opportunity for members to hear from leading improvement experts, share knowledge and resources, and connect with their peers across the community.

It is open to anyone working in NHS quality improvement in the North West, although priority will be given to members based in the Greater Manchester region.

If you are not a Q Community member but interested in joining, or for additional information please contact Charlie Woolley on Charlie.Woolley@srft.nhs.uk or 0161 206 0726.