Ben Slater - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Hello – my name is Ben Slater and I am an Improvement Facilitator in the Newcastle Improvement team. Our role is to support improvement in the Trust.

Improvement is really just change that makes things better for patients and for staff.

We support improvement by working with teams and use an approach that is based on improvement methodology.

I became interested in physiotherapy when playing football. There was a point where I was seeing more of the physio than my football team-mates!

My journey into NHS Improvement

Although that was my way into physiotherapy, I quickly realised it was working in the NHS that interested me with its diversity of clinical areas.

I found myself working in quality improvement when it became a growing focus and a source of learning in my clinical work as a physiotherapist.

I felt I had lots of experience leading improvements in my team and I wanted to grow my experience and understanding to support others in theirs.

Why I love my job

I like to see the positive benefits of changes on patients and staff. I like seeing the mutual benefit of a better day for staff leading to better care for patients.

Quality Improvement is for everyone and there isn’t any barrier to start.

I also like offering a different perspective of a problem whether that be through being someone from outside the team I’m working with or being able to use my skills to offer greater insight into an issue.