Imagining the future of eye care… together

Moorfields Eye Hospital’s purpose is “to work together to discover, develop and deliver the very best eye care”. It’s in that spirit of working together that we’re embarking on our latest project with them, to involve both staff and patients in the development of their future strategy.

Moorfields are keen to ensure that both staff and patients have the chance to input into the development of the strategy. As a team, we were also keen to explore how they might go beyond traditional forms of ‘engagement’, e.g. consultation or seeking feedback, and instead to consider how we could shape the strategy working together as one community of stakeholders.

We have loosely drawn on the International Futures Forum’s ‘Three Horizons’ model in our approach; looking back at what has happened in the recent past, identifying patterns and lessons learnt, looking ahead to the future and imagining together, and then jointly identifying the new horizon to work towards.

We will continue to share open updates on this process and our learnings and insight as we progress through the project. The first of these updates will give you an overview of learnings to date, and provide an opportunity to get involved in an upcoming strategy design workshop.

We started with stories.

We have spent the last 3 months gathering stories from staff and patients, through interviews and surveys, about what it’s been like to be a part of Moorfields, either as a member of staff or patient/carer over the past year and beyond. We’ve focussed on what’s been good — so that we can understand what should be taken forward into the future — and also explored the challenges, and elements of the experience that could perhaps be left behind.

We asked staff what it’s been like to work at Moorfields through a period of great innovation and intense challenge during the Covid-19 pandemic. We heard of the rapid changes needed to ensure that patients could continue to receive care whilst being kept safe. From telephone and video appointments to rapid diagnostic and imaging clinics, to a ‘cataract drive’ which saw more than 700 operations delivered in six days.

Moorfields staff have talked passionately and with great enthusiasm about the emerging culture of innovation and experimentation which has been accelerated during the pandemic, as well as the opportunity it has presented for greater autonomy and increased collaboration between colleagues. It was felt that Oriel — Moorfields’ upcoming new hospital project — provides an opportunity to deliberately and strategically reform the Moorfields network, and that in this moment, Moorfields has an opportunity to build on its position as a leader in research and clinical care to also become a leader in pathway and service design innovation.

Many of these themes can also be recognised in the patient stories we have been gathering as part of this process.

We asked patients and their friends/family to tell us a story about when their treatment, care or service has been working really well. Alongside the warmth, gratitude and esteem for the teams delivering eye care across the Moorfields network, what really stood out from the stories was the importance of being reassured: put at ease, having fears allayed and building confidence in the course and direction of their treatment. This reassurance presented itself in the following ways:

In the kindness and empathy shown towards patients as people with different personal circumstances — making people feel cared for and able to cope.

“I really appreciated having the hand of a nurse take my hand and give me reassurance” — Sally, Essex

“I always felt that I was in the best place possible receiving the latest technology available from wonderful caring staff. They always explained what the current position was [and] what might happen in future.” — Mike, West Sussex

And, in the detail, clarity and thoroughness in communicating the situation in plain language. Telling patients exactly what’s going on, why and when things are going to happen — treating patients as intelligent individuals, not just a number, and making them feel respected and more in control.

“I am always particularly struck by the excellence of the communication skills of the doctors I see.” — Claudine, Cambridge

“Being spoken to as an intelligent equal and individual” — Ann, London

These stories and experiences have already helped shape the future direction of Moorfields — surfacing a set of questions, many of which we are hoping to take into the next phase of this collaborative process:

• How can teamwork and collaboration be encouraged?
• How can everyone have the freedom to innovate?
• How can we involve patients in redesigning pathways?
• How can we put empathy and kindness at the centre of patient care?
• How can we communicate with every patient as an equal partner?

What is happening next?

The next step in our process is a set of workshops where we’ll bring together staff and patients together to shape Moorfields’ new strategic horizon.

We’re deliberately looking to run these sessions with staff and patients side by side, rather than in separate sessions. The simple reason for this is that we believe we’ll deepen our understanding through listening to each others’ stories and experiences. We’ll also co-create a joint vision for Moorfields’ future and work together to identify the steps the Trust needs to take to get there. Put simply, we will achieve a clearer and more authentic picture together than we ever could by discussing the future strategy independently of each other.

In the workshop sessions, these Moorfields ‘Future Shapers’ will be exploring some of the questions uncovered by the work so far, and collectively imagining:

What is the future that we, as staff and patients of Moorfields Eye Hospital, want to create?

Do you know someone with a story to tell?

It’s not too late to share a story! Please do share the storytelling form with anyone you know from the patient and carer community so that they can share their story too.