Following a special Board Meeting today (Wednesday 23 April), a new clear path forward has been announced for NHSGGC, marking a strong commitment to collaboration and improving services to positively transform the future of the health service for staff, patients and the wider community.
The GGC Way Forward – Transforming Together, is a bold new programme of transformation, driving whole-system reform.
The system-wide initiative, which marks an evolution in the way health care is delivered within NHSGGC, will focus on delivering a raft of service improvements to support and ease pressures faced across acute sites as part of a multi-phased approach.
At the heart of The GGC Way Forward – Transforming Together is a commitment to partnership throughout.
The approach is shaped by six key themes identified via staff feedback and through a recent Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) Emergency Department Review:
- Staffing – ensuring sustainable and supported teams across the service
- Facilities and the Physical Environment – creating safe, modern spaces for care
- Patient Flow and Escalation – improving how patients move through the system
- Incident Reporting – fostering a culture of openness and learning among staff
- Culture, Behaviours and Relationships – promoting respect, professionalism, and collaboration
- Communication – improving how we connect with staff and patients
The GGC Way Forward – Transforming Together marks a new chapter for the Health Board, and reflects a commitment from new Chief Executive, Professor Jann Gardner, to listening, learning, and acting on feedback from frontline staff and patients.
As part of the initiative NHSGGC is also commissioning external experts to support work on improving relationships, behaviours and organisational culture within the Health Board.
An additional new, formal governance structure has also been created to oversee the delivery of the improvement programme, co-led by clinical and managerial leaders with input from non-executive Board members.
This structure is designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and system-wide collaboration and will see external partners including the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) working alongside NHSGGC to provide support and advice. Healthcare Improvement Scotland has also been invited to join the oversight board.
Professor Jann Gardner, Chief Executive of NHSGGC, said: “We have heard clearly from our colleagues across the system, and we’re taking action.
“The GGC Way Forward – Transforming Together is about building a stronger, more inclusive culture and creating lasting improvements.
“This is a new chapter — one where we reinforce working together to deliver the best care possible for our patients by creating a much more collaborative environment which listens to and engages with staff to shape policy and tackle some of the big issues facing us.
“The challenges facing us are significant but I am confident we can make a demonstrable improvement by working together.
“The first phase of the GGC Way Forward – Transforming Together enables us to address a number of those short-term challenges, while also creating the foundation and the environment for much broader positive system-wide improvements in the long term.”