College project by young Milton Keynes student saves NHS more than half a million pounds

A student has saved the NHS more than half a million pounds with her common sense college project.

Kayleigh Southern was taken on as a management apprentice at Milton Keynes hospital and this required her to study for her Level 3 Apprenticeship in Team Leading at MK College.

As part of a college project, she looked into the way the hospital’s waiting list system is organised.

The NHS gets a £5,000 fine if a patient has to wait longer than a certain number of months for an appointment and does its best to avoid this.

But as waiting lists fill up and people change appointment or fail to turn up, the system gets complicated and gaps appear, ultimately leading to fines.

What Kayleigh did was to painstakingly rearrange the list, patient by patient, so that everyone was being seen in turn and every single slot was filled.

It took her10 days just to do just one department, but her efforts saved the hospital getting a total of £590,000 in fines.

Kayleigh joined her fellow apprentices and Higher Education students at Milton Keynes College Group’s (MKCG’s) Graduation ceremony last week.

She said: “Younger me couldn’t imagine being a manager, but my apprenticeship and the support from the staff at MK College gave me the tools, techniques and confidence to progress in my career. I learned so much, not just from the course itself but also from my fellow apprentices and their diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.

"My teachers were incredible and I now count my tutor as a friend and mentor whose advice has been invaluable. I’d thoroughly recommend an apprenticeship – it gives you skills you can apply to both your personal and professional life”.

Sally Alexander, CEO and Group Principal at MK College Group, said: “We’re incredibly proud of our graduates. They’ve worked so hard to achieve their qualifications, in what have been very challenging times. And like Kayleigh, they’ve all learned skills they can apply to their work and personal lives, whatever stage of their careers they’re in."