One of the greatest compliments I think it is possible to receive as a Chief Executive is when colleagues say they feel like you’re ‘one of them’.
That can be anyone, across any of our services or settings, but the sense that people feel that you’re part of their team is overwhelmingly touching and, for me, such a positive affirmation of who you are and how you’re doing the job.
This plays out almost every day when I am out and about across the Trust and made to feel so welcome wherever I go – and that includes East Lancashire Hospitals as an organisation but also across the wider health and social care system in Lancashire and South Cumbria and generally in Pennine Lancashire too.
Just this week I have met with senior managers in operational roles after they invited me to join them for a development session designed to consolidate and finesse their approach as a team. I gave an update at the beginning of the meeting which they seemed to really appreciate, even though time was short and the agenda was packed. Part of the challenge was to draw it in the moment, which I accept isn’t my finest skill as well!
I have also been to A&E at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital which I do as often as I can just to check in, say hello and hear how colleagues are getting on with the relentless pressure and demand. I have to say between the cold weather and some tight diary constraints, I literally hurtled from one end of the Haslingden Road campus to the other – but it was worth it, no doubt.
I also bobbed over to Burnley General Teaching Hospital yesterday for a celebration event to recognise colleagues in the Trust’s Child and Adolescent Service (ELCAS), which includes a number of wider specialist teams and has recently received a Quality Network for Community CAMHS (QNCC) accreditation from the Royal College of Psychiatry. This is a very prestigious award and only five other services have it in the whole of England.
I’m fortunate as part of my role that I am invited to this type of thing and I genuinely enjoy meeting people as much as I can within any working week. That said, I always want to be treated equally as a colleague and not as a ‘special guest’. I’m there to see how things are going and to demonstrate with a physical presence how important, valued and appreciated colleagues are. That I get to engage in open and honest conversations while I am there is always a bonus.
This was true of all the colleagues and visits I have already mentioned.
The operational team rarely get any time to be together to discuss tactics or share thinking time, so to welcome some input from me was appreciated and the opportunity to listen and hear feedback from them always valuable.
I was also humbled, as always, to see the pressure and demand being managed by the team across our urgent and emergency care pathways and I appreciated the way colleagues still found a moment to stop, say hello and share their views, despite how busy they were.
In ELCAS, ongoing discussions that are taking place around the integration of health services across Lancashire and South Cumbria could potentially impact on the way they deliver services and I know this is a worry for them. Still, when I joined their celebrations, they welcomed me, talked to me openly about their concerns and we had a conversation which allowed me to recognise and acknowledge this in a compassionate and constructive way.
That people continue to think logically about and prioritise the needs of our local community always blows me away – and I am beyond grateful for the measured approach being demonstrated not just by this team – but by everyone at ELHT, across all services and settings at what is generally a very difficult time.
I took the unusual step of heading to London on Wednesday to join a national meeting headed up by NHS England’s strategy director Chris Hopkins and his update to Chief Executives from across the country resonated hugely with everything we are experiencing here.
If I was to summarise the messages I heard during the day, I would say there is a clear recognition that working in the NHS and delivering on everything we need to at the moment is tough, but that being open and honest about the challenges and providing hope will help us through.
I spoke about the importance of providing hope just a couple of weeks ago in this blog so it won’t surprise you to hear I agreed, completely, and that I still think ELHT does this in spades. We’re open and honest about what needs to be done, but we never give up the idea we can achieve it.
Chris also referenced how the NHS can proudly look back over the generations and point to progress and innovation in how we support the health and wellbeing of the population – whether that’s advances in diagnosis or treatment or even the recognition of new conditions and the importance of managing them positively.
He reminded us of two things. The first that there is still absolutely loads that we can do as part of this amazing institution that makes a difference to people’s lives – that includes development of things like artificial intelligence, vaccinations that actually eradicate diseases and the power of genomics. There really are lots of things we can do now that we never used to be able to – and it goes without saying that this approach will continue into the future.
This takes me to his second, equally powerful reminder, about the high regard in which the NHS is held by people. Chris shared that in latest testing, up to 80% of all people remained loyally supportive of the principles upon which health care in England is founded – that it is free at the point of access for everyone who needs it. It seems so obvious when you say it, but it is worth remembering when times are hard. The NHS is an incredible, unique thing that we can all be proud of, whomever we are – and that includes everyone at the Trust more than most.
In the next few months we’re undoubtedly going to become a topic of debate ahead of a pending General Election and the pressures on urgent and emergency care, reducing our unprecedented waiting lists and supporting primary care and particularly GPs to recover after the pandemic are going to become very hot potatoes indeed as candidates vie for your vote. The critical element of this for everyone within the NHS is going to be funding and how we deliver on promises within the budgets we have.
Chris talked about building a ‘believable bridge’ to a new NHS that works in different ways but still hold firm on its founding principles and gets the very basics needs of health care right. I’m not sure we all know exactly what this will look like with a potential change in Government, but it’s clearly a metaphor that is going to require us to travel onwards from where we are.
Today we welcomed another national figure to the Trust in Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of NHS Employers. Danny spent the day hearing about our innovative approach to people and culture, to innovation, health equity and lots of other topics we’re wrestling with. This kind of showcase always makes me feel incredibly proud of everything we are achieving and I know Danny will take learning back with him to share with others too.
For now, for colleagues within the Trust who are working their socks off every day and night, I think the message in these difficult times is to do what you can, as well as you can and know that this is enough. Be present in the moment for our patients, their families and for each other. Control what you can and always do your best. This is the spirit of ELHT as demonstrated through the generations and the philosophy that we’re all in it together has always served us well.
On this note let me end with something lighter. Amid all the pressing challenges this week, I had to laugh when a visitor stopped me on the car park on the way back from A&E and asked me to fix a windscreen wiper. I share this only to remind us that we’re only human, we’re doing our best and, that, is always, always good enough. Even though I’m pretty sure that my intervention failed miserably and made the whole situation considerably worse. For this, I am truly sorry.
Have a good weekend if you are off and thanks to everyone who is working the first one of the festive season. You’ll note I haven’t mentioned the ‘C’ word despite being the first blog of December – of course, more on that next week.
Martin