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66Dube modelled the change he wished to see in others. His dedication embedded lean in the hospital, leading to remarkable improvements in efficiency and patient care, demonstrating that profound transformation starts with the leader’s own behavioural change. Less Waiting To Liberate ResourcesGrey Dube and the CEOs from three other facilities tackled chronic waiting times despite resource and budget constraints. Initial resistance from physicians over inadequate facilities gradually shifted toward progress through persistent leadership and tapping team ingenuity, rather than seeking solutions that required budget. Key strategies included mapping patient journeys and reducing waste, establishing daily routines for collaborative problem solving , communicating through A3 reports, improving workplace organisation, and introducing one-piece flow where feasible. These methods resulted in significant waiting time reductions, including an 86% drop in one of the pilot areas. For leaders, this demonstrated that low-cost, peopledriven methods can liberate resources from waste, curbing the reliance on facility expansion and unnecessary capital investment that would otherwise increase material, energy and water needs.Lean Saves LivesAt Grey Dube’s hospital, which serves a low-income community, staff revolutionised operations through Kaizen in administration, clinics and the pharmacy, while growing their problem solving capabilities. Not only did they reduce customer complaints, but neonatal mortality rates too. In Dube’s recent book, Every Patient Counts, he explains that neonatal mor tality fell by half between 2017 and 2018. In an interview published on Planet Lean, the hospital reached 83% reduction between 2017 and 2019, averaging 58% improvement for the period. This was accomplished by addressing absenteeism, creating new standard work, problem solving to safety goals, visible leadership involvement, and learning by doing. All low cost solutions. In a different region, the Emergency Medical Services team adopted lean to meet its target of getting a patient from emergency call to hospital admission in under one hour. They focused on reducing wasted time and errors, improving vehicle setup and 5S practices, and following basic checklists. By shifting focus from silodriven metrics to the customer's needs, they improved mission time despite high unpredictability in patient demand and external factors like traffic.The Doughnut Model centres around creating better, more equitable lives for all, and the importance of lean thinking in healthcare to accomplish this cannot be underestimated. The examples above directly impact mortality rates, and demonstrate that thinking lean is not only critical to conserving and liberating resources, but in saving lives too.