Welcome to my latest blog - and this week is all about appreciation!
Today is Employee Appreciation Day, and whilst I appreciate everything you do, every day, it seems appropriate to say it today. I am incredibly proud of each and every one of you and really do appreciate the pride you take in delivering safe, personal and effective care in our hospitals and within the community. You all make a really important contribution – whatever your role is – and it doesn’t go unnoticed. YOU are the ones who make a positive difference and make ELHT an amazing place to be.
Sunday provides another opportunity for appreciation as it is International Women’s Day (8 March). Women play a vital role within the NHS, and we are privileged to have a significant and diverse workforce here at ELHT. Over 80% of our staff are women, providing us with positive representation and strong leadership at every level within our Trust. Although I would love to mention every female role model – and there are lots here in ELHT - I want to focus on a couple in particular. Our Chairman Professor Eileen Fairhurst, who is a prominent academic and well respected leader of our Trust, is a fantastic place to begin. She brings a wealth of experience and wisdom and the epitome of hard work and dedication. And, as it is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, I would like to say a special thank you to our female nursing leaders. Again, I can’t name check them all but Director of Nursing Chris Pearson, Deputy Director of Nursing Julie Molyneaux, and Head of Midwifery Angela O’Toole are certainly worthy of mention. I’d like to pay tribute to all of our nurses, midwives and support workers, and all the women in our Trust, who demonstrate compassion, skill and leadership on a daily basis. Thank you all.
The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #EachForEqual pose. Make sure you keep an eye out on ELHT social media pages this Sunday, for more images of our wonderful staff spreading the word to motivate others and mark IWD 2020.
My last word on appreciation in this blog is a reminder that this coming week is your final chance to vote for your winners of the ‘Employee of the Year’ and ‘Patients Choice’ categories in our annual STAR awards. Each year, the hundreds of nominations we receive are reviewed by a panel of judges to produce a shortlist. The shortlist is then scrutinised by external judges who choose the winner of each category. However, in the two categories mentioned, the winner is chosen by YOU. You can vote for your favourite by going to our website and clicking on the relevant category under the ‘work for us’ tab. The contest is extremely close so make sure you have your say – every vote counts!
This week Chairman Eileen and I hosted two events to showcase our two new surgical robots, which are now in both our Blackburn and Burnley teaching hospital sites. We invited local influencers to come and speak to our surgeons and see how the robots work, demonstrating their huge impact on patient experience, staff recruitment and retention and the Trust’s reputation, both nationally and internationally.
Having this new robotic equipment will provide huge benefits for our patients, by providing, where possible, a less invasive alternative to traditional surgery, with faster recovery times and reduced pain and infection risks, as well as making surgery an option for some of our patients who aren’t able to have open operations. The purchase of these two new robots will enable us to become a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for robotic surgery, and always providing the best care for the people of East Lancashire, locally.
Coronavirus continues to monopolise the headlines in the news. I’d like to take this opportunity to reassure everyone that ELHT is fully prepared for a response to the virus should it reach East Lancashire. We have a special co-ordination centre set up which is managing and implementation all our plans, processes and procedures. This unit is headed by Tony McDonald, Director of Integrated Care and Partnerships, and Dr Ian Stanley, Director of Infection Prevention and Control, supported by clinical and non-clinical staff, ensuring a robust and coordinated approach is achieved.
This week saw the launch of our ‘drive through’ and community testing. As with all the coronavirus management the new services are only accessible through a referral from NHS 111. This means people worried about the virus can safely and quickly get checked close to home and without the need to enter a hospital environment. Again, the single most important thing we can all do to stop the spread and to prevent catching the infection is to maintain good hand hygiene and follow the principles of catch it, kill it, bin it! Let’s all do our bit to keep healthy!
To end this week’s blog, I would just like to mention that the new and revised risk management training is now available on e-learning. You can also opt for one of the regular face to face training sessions that are available –this can be booked via the learning hub. Risk Management is everyone’s responsibility. There has been some absolutely fantastic work executed in the divisions over the last few months to really put focus onto our risk registers - a huge thank you for this!
So, have a fantastic weekend, whatever you are doing.
Kevin