Field note · 2025-09-16
Four pages a board will actually read
Partners and non-executive directors do not need twenty slides. They need the specialty named, the month named, the question named, and one chart they can argue with.
A useful operations pack for a clinic board is short. Page one states the specialty, the site, the twelve-week window, and the decision the meeting is being asked to take: change the template, add a list, stop a ghost clinic, or leave the book as it is.
Page two is waiting time in clinic — not referral-to-treatment, which belongs in a different paper. Minutes from advertised appointment to being called, shown by week. If the chart is spiky on school holidays, say so in a caption rather than in a footnote nobody reaches.
Page three is the list: start delay, unused slots, DNA under an agreed definition. Keep the y-axes in counts as well as percentages. A 12% DNA on a list of eight is one person; on a list of forty it is another matter.
Page four is the recommendation and who owns it. ‘Reception to text on Tuesday’ is an action. ‘Improve patient engagement’ is not. If the recommendation costs money — an extra nurse for a one-stop list — put the day-rate or the band in the same sentence.
We write these packs as part of a review or as a standalone commission. We will not dress a weak extract in decorative charts. If the PAS cannot support a claim, the pack says the claim cannot be made.