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Dr. John Boulton

Director for NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety/ Director Improvement Cymru

About Me

Director for NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety/ Director Improvement Cymru

John Boulton is the Director for NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety/ Director Improvement Cymru

Prior to joining Public Health Wales, Dr John Bolton worked as Executive Director of Continuous Improvement at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

Whilst working as a Rheumatologist John became interested in quality improvement methodologies. After becoming an active member of his Trust’s improvement team he went onto lead the outpatient transformation program. His work within Rheumatology was shortlisted for a national award, and included improved scheduling of biological therapies, delivery of biologics within community settings, and improving patient experience within outpatient clinics.

In 2012 he was awarded a Quality Improvement fellowship at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, sponsored by the Health Foundation. This enabled him to develop a deep understanding of Improvement science as well as observing how to achieve improvement at scale.

Prior to moving to Wales he worked in the State of Qatar as Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement at Hamad Medical Corporation. He led the corporate flow strategy resulting in the development of a flow collaborative which built organisational capability, and ultimately produced marked improvements in flow. In addition, he supported IHI’s patient safety collaborative which resulted in sustainable reductions in patient harm.

Dr Boulton has presented extensively on Quality Improvement and mathematical modelling. He is currently European faculty for the IHI’s Improvement Coach Professional Development programme. Additionally in 2018 he became honorary Professor at the University of Swansea.