Hello everyone
I'm going to start with a final plea for everyone, yes everyone, to fill in the staff survey. About 40% of you have filled it in so far, which is great. But I'd really like at least 50% of our workforce to be contributing. The information that we are able to gather from it is essential. It helps individuals, it helps the organisation and ultimately it helps our patients. Together, we can further improve our services as we strive to help our people to be the best that they can be. And I can absolutely assure you it is completely confidential and anonymous. Please have your say! We are listening.
A big thank you this week goes to the Staff Health and Wellbeing Team. Not only are they co-ordinating the staff survey, but they are also supporting our fantastic Occupational Health Team in driving the flu campaign. Having the flu jab is the best way to protect your patients, colleagues and families. So if you haven't yet taken up the offer, what's stopping you? I've had mine. Make a pledge to get it ASAP.
Tomorrow the Trust’s charity, ELHT&Me, will be in full focus at Blackburn Rovers' championship game with Barnsley. If you have taken up the offer for tickets, I hope you have a great day out and use this as an opportunity to act as ambassadors for both the Trust and the Charity. Our Communications and Charity teams will be there – along with our fabulous mascot, Elmore! We hope this event raises a good sum of money to help us enhance our offer to patients and their families. If you'd like to show your support for ELHT&Me simply text 44ROVERS with your donation amount (for example 44ROVERS10) to 70085. You can also share these details with your family and friends. And as a committed Liverpool FC fan I don't say this often, but come on you blues!
This week I agreed to become an Antibiotic Guardian – maybe you did too? It was all part of Antibiotic Awareness week, and our Pathology and Pharmacy teams got together to promote correct antibiotic use. Our FY1 and FY2 Doctors hosted presentations and an interactive display to encouraged staff to sign up to become an Antibiotic Guardian and to help spread awareness. Here are some photos of the event.
Yesterday was International Stop Pressure Ulcer Day and I want to draw your attention to this important topic which is very distressing for our patients, is in many cases avoidable and costs the NHS millions in providing treatment and care. In the 12 months up to March 2019, we treated 705 patients who had pressure ulcers – the vast majority of these were acquired before the patient came into our hospitals. We’re working really hard to tackle the problem and, thanks to our excellent Tissue Viability Nurses and Pressure Ulcer Steering Group, the number of pressure ulcers acquired in hospital continues to fall. In fact, it’s comforting to know that many of our wards have been ‘pressure ulcer free’ for over a year, in some cases, two. This is great news for our patients and shows that it is totally within our grasp to #StopThePressure. Find out how to show your support here.
Here are some pictures of our ‘Pressure Ulcer Heroes’ on C4 raising awareness yesterday and the Trainee Nursing Associates who used red dots to highlight areas at risk of pressure damage on their training day recently.
I hope you are able to have a restful weekend, and thank you if you are working.