Mary Ryan (Patient Safety Officer and Service User Representative, south west England)

I am so excited to be welcoming you to the Q family and even more excited by the potential Q has to make a real and lasting impact on the quality of care patients and their families receive from the NHS. You and me are so much more likely to make a positive difference by belonging to Q and the many opportunities it offers us. You may ask – ‘well, what is Q?’, the answer – ‘we are’.

So I hope your experience of Q will be a wonderful one as it has been for me, every step of the way.

I know you’ll be energised and stimulated by it. The potential is enormous. Our challenge is to fulfil it. Q is not a magic solution to the challenges of QI. But it is a very powerful way of connecting people who are skilled and passionate about improvement so that they can learn from each other, share ideas and innovations and be effective champions in their own areas.

Q will give you access to some excellent resources via the Health Foundation and its talented Q team. You will be stunned by the contribution of Uscreates and RAND Europe. And you will get to hear from world leaders in QI to motivate and inspire you.

So I hope your experience will be a wonderful one as it has been for me, every step of the way. I know you will be energised and stimulated by it. You are enriching the community and Q will be what we all make it. The potential is enormous. Our challenge is to fulfil it.
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Ashley Gould (Consultant in Public Health, Wales)

Croeso i Q…that’s Welsh for ‘Welcome to Q!’….and perhaps helps underline the reach of the initiative.

As a Consultant in Public Health I came to Q believing quality improvement was about maximising our collective impact so that the maximum number of individuals can reach their maximum health potential. Collective here extends to clinical, managerial, leadership, public, political, and individuals themselves as ‘consumers’ of health care services, and Q has reinforced my belief….we’re in it together and ‘none of us knows as much as all of us!’…Q helps with the sharing!

Public health is a (mainly) facilitative discipline that can add value along the health continuum and I see massive overlap and potential learning for both public health and quality improvement as ‘disciplines’. I’m passionate about empowering and enabling others to deliver tangible improvements in health, and Q helps me maintain and develop my roles as an agent of change in this respect, and create an environment for fostering high impact improvement through our better organised efforts.
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Jon Hanson (Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, Health Education North East Chair of Patient Safety Faculty)

Being a member of Q has allowed me access to a huge and diverse network of individuals and organisations interested in quality improvement.

In particular in the north east, the 10 founding fellows in collaboration with the Patient Safety Collaborative and Health Education England North East have been able to work closely together to strengthen the regional improvement work, run regional conferences and develop a region-wide programme for quality improvement, encouraging all individuals within the health system to become involved in quality improvement work in an inclusive and supportive way.

None of this would have been possible without the connections we make through being members of the national Q initiative.
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Heather Shearer (Board and Partnerships QI Development Lead, Scotland)

Welcome to Q, I hope you enjoy being part of this growing community.

I’ve found Q has offered me opportunities to renew old connections and create new connections across the UK. This has been both energising (sometimes a needed boost to resilience!) and often very practical for my day-to-day job.

The UK flavour is brilliant for me but it has also given us an opportunity within Scotland to strengthen connections amongst folk passionate about improvement. My favourite parts of Q are the face-to-face meetings – when I can get to them – but I’ve also been dabbling more with LinkedIn and of course online/phone conversations following up specific connections.

As with most things, I find I get more out of Q when I put more in but I definitely come and go depending on other pressures.
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