I would like to start this blog by thanking Kiel Shoja for his enlightening blog on championing innovation at ELHT.
If you missed it last week, you can read it here. Additionally, the blog provides contact details for anyone seeking support in bringing their ideas, whether big or small, to fruition.
I’ve previously mentioned when our local MP’s visit our hospital sites, which are fairly regular events. This past week we have welcomed three of the four local MPs to our Emergency Department at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, to see firsthand the scale of the continuing pressures on our urgent and emergency care pathways.
The three visits were purely coincidental, but no doubt born out of concerns being raised, understandably, by local residents – our patients.
Regular readers will be well aware of the challenges we face and the operating context we are facing. You will not be surprised to hear that this has not eased through the winter months. Despite the huge amounts of planning and preparation that takes place, we are still dealing with a significant increase in the numbers of very poorly people attending our hospital in need of care and treatment.
The visits enabled me to be quite candid with the MPs, paving the way for them to witness the pressures and conditions that our colleagues are working in, while they do all they can to care for our patients.
We have recently had to make some incredibly tough decisions in a bid to improve our patient’s experience in the department. These have included relocating our ambulatory emergency care unit and urgent treatment centre and utilising the corridor entrance to our acute medical unit to relieve the pressure and create more space.
But of course, we won’t stop there. We are constantly looking at how we can improve our patients experience in the Trust.
The MPs understood and appreciated the dilemma we are dealing with and each asked individually what they could do to help and support the Trust. So, we are compiling a list of areas where we think a little bit of extra help would be very gratefully received.
On Monday, the Emergency Department also welcomed a unique visitor – Alfie, our therapy dog and Head of Happiness. Alfie is a familiar face across our hospital sites, offering a cheerful distraction from work and contributing to the relief of daily stresses and strains.
We are very lucky to have Alfie as a support for both our patients and colleagues, offering comfort and “Paws for Play” time.
Mid-week, I attended the North West leadership meeting, where the sole topic was the findings from the enquiry into the lapses in care at the Edenfield Unit, part of the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust.
A "toxic culture of humiliation, verbal abuse and bullying" was discovered through a Panorama investigation of the failings in care delivered at the secure mental health unit.
In listening to the findings, there were a number of points that really resonated with me, and they are things that we will embrace and champion in this organisation.
One is listening to patients and allowing the patient’s voice to be heard. This is crucial to being able to provide the right care to our patients. You may be interested to know that each Trust Board meeting is opened with a patient’s story, where individuals are encouraged to share their experiences – good and bad, to enforce this.
We are also currently working on developing a comprehensive patient experience strategy that will encompass a number of initiatives to improve our engagement with patients and their families.
The importance of clinical leadership and having a positive and open organisational culture was also raised, both are areas that we do our best to promote but there is undoubtedly more to do. Having an ‘improvement plan’ was also highlighted, which is an area in which we’ve come a long way over the last couple of years.
We will be considering, as a Board, the findings from this inquiry and whilst it's focus is on mental health services, I do think there are some takeaways that would benefit most Trusts and health care providers, so rest assured we will be taking this really, really seriously.
This week, we received notification that there will be another five days of industrial action, from 24 February to 28 February, by junior doctors, as part of a long running dispute with the Government over pay.
I have said many times before and will continue to state that while I respect the right of colleagues to take lawful action in this way, I’m so genuinely sorry to everyone who’s treatments or appointments may now need to be rescheduled as a result.
We will again do everything within our power to minimise the inevitable disruption to our services for our patients.
Moving on to more uplifting news, I was made aware by Aleyamma Abraham, Advanced Clinical Practitioner for General Surgery, that the United Malayalee Association (UMA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this Saturday.
The UMA was formed by a group of south Indian nurses who work at ELHT and their families to promote friendship, advance education and enrich the local community.
At present there are around 200 nurses and a number of health care assistants from Kerala, a southern state of Indian, working in our Trust. Their significant contributions have helped to provide safe, personal and effective care for our patients as well as support service development.
They are working on a souvenir magazine highlighting the important activities of the UMA. We’ll share a link to this once it is published.
I’m incredibly proud and grateful of everything the UMA continue to do and achieve – as well as the impact they have in nurturing an environment of inclusivity at the Trust.
My final words are a huge THANK YOU to our ELHT Family, for everything you do, and continue to do, it is very much appreciated.
Take care, Martin.