Lean leadership in dentistry

Increasing productivity is a key part of the government’s strategy to improve the NHS, making services more sustainable. Through the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Lean for Leaders programme, colleagues learn a management system with an in-built improvement methodology that is supported by an extensive range of tools and techniques that help to transform the services delivered on an everyday basis. This programme would be beneficial to all members of the dental team as it teaches methods and techniques that can develop pathways and systems to improve patient safety, create a healthy working environment for staff and increase productivity. This article presents how some of the programme contents have been applied to demonstrate its relevance and functionality.