Posted on: 24 August 2020

Patients and staff at 2 Colham Green Road in Hillingdon have been getting active in their latest quality improvement (QI) project to improve patient’s physical health. 

Many patients started to exercise at least twice a week and eat healthier after attending educational sessions and cooking classes.

Hannah Pell, a senior Occupational Therapist at 2 Colham Green Road, started the project and said, “I heard many services across the Trust were improving their level of care by conducting QI projects, so I suggested that we start a QI project of our own to help improve patients’ physical health because we noticed patients weren’t doing a lot of exercise.”

The team also bought new sport equipment and held a sports day event, as well as supporting patients to go into the community and do activities like swimming.

Patients were involved from the start in the aims and methodology of the project and the onus was on them to track their progress and tick the number of exercises completed each day.

The project has been a huge success with patients regularly doing more exercise.

William, a patient on the ward, said, “I’ve found the quality improvement project really enjoyable, it’s improved my mental state.”

Bobby Mahabir, Ward Manager, said “It is important to involve patients from the beginning to make sure it is something patients want to do and find engaging, after all it is their journey.”

Patients have continued to exercise and eat healthily and the team a 2 Colham Green Road are supporting them all the way.

Hear from patients and staff at 2 Colham Green Road about their QI project in the video below.