Better, safer, higher quality: improving care at international conference

30 May 2025

Last week several of our experts took the trip to the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Utrecht.

The conference aims to inform and inspire health and care leaders, practitioners, service users, patients and carers towards a better, safer and higher quality of care.

We were presenting work around our involvement in the national Mental Health Act reform quality improvement programme.

The programme was set up to make sure that the principles of the Mental Health Act review are put into practice and inequities which are inherent in the system are addressed.

Check out a behind the scenes video and blog from Jenny Morton, quality improvement programme lead, who was part of the group who took the trip to the Netherlands.

We attended the IHI/BMJ International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare to learn from improvement experts from around the world, including professionals from organisations such as the Virginia Mason Institute.

Kim Parker, Carl Reeves and Gambinga Gambinga presented a session about their national Mental Health Act work at Forest Lodge, which was recognised by The Public Service Consultants one of the most powerful improvement projects their national coach has worked on.

The presentation received outstanding feedback, with participants appreciating the challenging nature of the work around racism and culture, and of the genuine example of coproduction with experts by experience, such as Carl and Gambinga (seriously it got so much good feedback – people were stopping Kim and Carl at the airport to say how powerful they found the presentation).

We also displayed and presented posters about the Waiting Less and Waiting Well QI Collaborative and the Q Exchange project focused on improving our Psychiatric Decisions Unit.

We were able to host world café discussions at the MHImprove network about both of these projects, receiving feedback from international professionals who specifically work within in mental health.

I think it’s safe to say we all came away from the experience feeling inspired, motivated, and proud. When we left the conference, I asked Kim, Carl and Clare to sum up the experience in one word. Carl – adventure, Kim – surreal, Clare – confidence-boosting (yes we let her hyphenate two words!).

In my opinion, the main thing to focus on is the session presented about Forest Lodge – the forum has approximately 2000 people attending, and many of these delegates will have submitted applications to present (I know I did!), so being selected to present is HUGE!!

Thanks to the sponsorship we received from the Virginia Mason Institute which allowed Kim and Carl to attend, and to the funders behind the Q Exchange project, The Health Foundation and NHS England, which supported Clare and me to be there.