I don’t know if it’s the official end of meteorological summer and the sharp descent into autumn temperatures that has so quickly ensued, the kids returning to school and the inevitable increase in traffic it brings or just something in the air or water – but this week has gone by in a whirl.
I’ve had the opportunity to get out and see people a couple of times, which has brightened the days as they shorten for the season, but have also had my fair share of challenges too.
I think that’s typical of a working week for most people but, as always, I’ll try and provide a good sense of what’s going on here at ELHT.
There’s been an enormous focus on getting some new processes in place to help us to manage our spending more proactively and I mentioned this at our weekly colleague update Teams Brief on Tuesday, at the Clinical Leader’s Forum on Wednesday and then wrote to everyone about it too.
The truth is that, whilst everyone is squarely focused on reducing our spending by £60.8million by the end of March, there is more work still to do if we’re going to achieve it. The financial position remains challenging beyond anything we have experienced before in ELHT and at the end of August – the fifth month in the financial year – we’re still some way away from where we need to be.
And so, in the next few days and weeks, a number of changes will be made, including to how every order/requisition is approved across all divisions, directorates, teams and services. You can imagine the totality of this in a Trust as big and busy as ELHT where around 50,000 ‘purchase order’ processes are made each year.
It’s serious stuff and I am keen we recognise that as we put new ways of working in place. For this reason, there has been a huge amount of consideration around how we do this to minimise disruption to colleagues raising requisitions and to any delays in getting the goods and services we need to care for people effectively.
The outcome however is to ensure every penny spent is accounted for properly, provides value for money and is necessary to providing high-quality and safe care for patients. My view is that this is an easier way to control our spending than looking for more big cost savings or waste reduction projects for colleagues to deliver on top of everything else.
There will be more information about all of this in the coming days and weeks but I just wanted to say thank you to all teams for their ongoing support in finding new and improved ways of working, which reduce costs whilst protecting the quality of services we provide. That’s the priority we can never lose sight of – the quality of services provided to our community must remain intact even as we reduce costs.
I know how hard people are working to do this and I believe our commitment to safe, personal and effective care for our patients and their families remains firmly in place. I see this every week as I visit services and teams across the organisation and I remain proud of how we are performing and delivering operationally.
One source of incredible pride continues to be the many positive stories I see and hear about the difference we are making to people’s lives.
I saw this in action when I visited fracture clinic which is near the entrance at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital to meet the team and hear how things were going for them earlier this week.
It’s a busy department and I heard how a new ‘virtual’ approach to assessing patients was helping the orthopaedic specialists care for more people as quickly as possible. It’s not perfect (yet) but I know colleagues are working hard to make improvements that matter to local people when things as critical as broken bones are concerned.
In particular it was great to see, as ever, the ‘can do’ attitude colleagues across ELHT have in spades clearly evident here too and the innovation and improvements being delivered day in and day out. I would like to thank Ravi Jugdey, Michelle Turton and Kirsty Clare for looking after me, showing me around and introducing me to the rest of the team. I got such a warm welcome and really appreciated it.
I also want to mention colleagues in the Occupational Health and Wellbeing Team who are similarly busy and just as ‘can-do’ in their approach. I received a lovely update to say they had met their key professional standards for 2025 – which makes it an amazing 12 years in a row.
To achieve this they provided a huge amount of evidence of their efforts to meet the Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service Standards (SEQOHS). This is a fantastic achievement in a team and service that has never been more critical to the Trust. Thank you to them for everything they continue to do for colleagues across ELHT.
Whilst I am on a ‘recognition roll’, let me also highlight some feedback from the family of a patient who was recently cared for on ward C22 – also at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital. I do love it when patients and their families take the time to tell us about their experience.
This one simply said: “To all nurses, doctors and everyone within the team that helped my dad on ward C22: the support you gave our family to make the situation as easy as it could be, for the work you put in to prolong his life for as long as you could and make it as comfortable as possible before his passing. Also the care and concern you had for our dad was touching as it felt to us that you really had a connection with him. The work you have done is amazing and we couldn't be more grateful for helping us through this difficult time. You truly did make us feel a lot better.”
I was really touched by this message which was written so clearly from the heart at such a difficult and emotional time. The compassion and personal approach of this team made a huge difference to this family and it is telling that they felt compelled to share this experience. I am grateful and privileged to work with people like this every day.
I have said before that teams in ELHT are largely made up of people who live locally in East Lancashire and we do also get a lot of patient feedback from colleagues too – which is great.
On Tuesday, a colleague posted this into the chat of Teams Brief and I thought I would include it here too: “A shout out to ward C18 staff for looking after my auntie so well after her major surgery. She's now home and there were some big emotions when she was leaving the ward. The staff all genuinely cared and it showed.”
I cannot think of a better review for a health care team than patients feeling emotional when the time to go home arrives – well done and thank you C18. Amazing feedback to hear.
On the same meeting we heard about a visit to ward B22 (also Blackburn) where colleagues were presented with a SPEC Award (Safe, Personal, Effective Care). The team were praised for so many things including the basics of caring for patients and their families of course, but also how they run the ward, are reducing their budgets through effective stock control and have one of the most positive cultures in the Trust, with phenomenally low sickness absence rates.
It was inspiring to hear and I hope the team are rightly proud of everything they do.
Well done to C22, C18 and B22 – and indeed everyone knocking it out of the park for our patients and their families this week, which will be many more than I have included here and across all our hospital sites and in the community too.
In all honestly, I just wish I could bottle what you have and sell it to the highest bidder. I’m sure I could clear the deficit without any further ado.
Martin