HUNDREDS of hospital staff have joined a national drive to do something different to improve care as part of NHS Change Day.

Change Day is a movement in the health service that gives staff a chance to pledge changes during March.

Among those to make pledges at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is a team of emergency consultants, who promised to ‘demonstrate strong clinical leadership’, and reception staff, who said they will ‘always greet patients and carers with a smile’.

Lee Barnes, head of occupational health and wellbeing, said: “NHS Change Day is about breaking down traditional barriers and recognising that everyone who works in, uses or cares about the NHS has the power to make a difference. A single pledge might not sound like much on the face of it, but when hundreds of thousands of people from every part of the NHS join forces with patients to pledge, it can create massive momentum for improvement.”