This sounds like the start of one of those News of The World (remember that) stories that ends with “So we made our excuses and left….”

We were not at a house of ill repute.  We were in my home city, Liverpool, and Fab NHS Stuff- run by Rot Lilley (of NHSmanagers.net fame), Terri Porrett and Jon Wilks.  The repository of good ideas – www.fabnhsstuff.net – was on the road!

Roy and The Blonde

The exhibition – sharing centre of posters and people – was so invigorating.  And you know, Terri was right in her overview at the lunchtime talk.  Most people (she singled out nurses) put down their achievements – you know the “well, it’s only a little thing’,  and “it’s just my job” – and “I’m sure everyone is doing this already”. sort of comments.  And Lilley and The Blonde were here to tell everyone that they were wrong to down play the fab stuff.

The web site has had over half a million page reads in just less than 1 year (14th Feb 2015 – sort of links to Love your NHS on Valentines day?).  They get 1500 visitors a day.  Perhaps even the CEO of the NHS, Simon Stevens (Sir), and Jeremy Hunt, current Secretary of State for Health.

But why The Blonde?  OMG, she has transmogrified into an acronym!

B – boast about your idea, and big it up

L – little things matter.  It’s all about aggregations of minor gains.

O – Opportunity through sharing – but one of the audience suggested ‘Ordinary people doing Extraordinary things” Terri may change her acronym…

N – Never underestimate the importance of what you do

D – Determination – never give up

E – Energy – and by sharing, you can energise others

Roy then kicked the blonde off stage to amplify the ethos of The Academy of Fab NHS Stuff If you show what is good, show what good looks like, and share it, then the new owner will not only use the idea, they will make it better, and will then pass it on.

The NHS has to do stuff differently.  It is already remarkably inexpensive to run, and the envy of many other countries (Except for us ourselves…sad). If you keep kicking people, said Mr Lilley, then they will just want to go home, and be very disheartened. (He said ‘pissed off’, but I wouldn’t use that language…) . 70% of budgets now go to look after long term conditions.  When the NHS began (2 years after Roy was born) the average working man died within 2 years of retiring.  The spend profile need has changed remarkably.  Ironically, the austerity recession (personally, not sure Keynes would have approved…) does have the one positive of making us all far more creative.

There are zillions of great and often simple ideas out there that just need to be shared.  From ‘Hello, my name is….” to stealing ideas from abroad (Home Care via Buurtzorg in Holland) – and The Academy of Fab NHS Stuff is a splendid vehicle of dissemination.

Can’t wait to hear more this evening!