I want to start today with a huge thank you, as always, to the guest blogger from last week – a brilliant colleague Uma Krishnamurthy.
I’m not sure how she found the time to write such an honest and brave – not to mention thought provoking – update if I am honest, as I know Uma has a formidable work schedule as a gynaecology consultant and associate medical director at ELHT, as well as being co-chair and chair of two staff networks too.
But I am so grateful that she did and if you didn’t read it you can find it here.
Uma’s guest blog marked the end of an intense week at the Trust, where we focused squarely and purposefully on raising awareness about our ongoing aim to become an anti-racist organisation.
As part of this, I wrote to all colleagues with the Trust Chair Shazad Sarwar, setting out our determination and intention to eradicate all forms of discrimination including racism from ELHT. Following this, I joined Shazad, Uma and our lead officer in this area Emma Dawkins to host a live briefing for colleagues, where we were able to meet with hundreds of others, share our understanding and experiences of discrimination in the Trust and, importantly, take input and questions too.
Only by coming together to have these honest conversations and share the varied experiences of colleagues and patients across services and settings will we really understand what it is like to work for ELHT in totality and how this differs depending on who or where you are.
I don’t want this to be the case – my wish is that everyone has a positive experience of an inclusive culture that values and celebrates people individually and equally, without prejudice.
We know from feedback, complaints and more serious processes such as grievance that individual teams have micro-cultures of their own, often drawn from history and focused on characteristics including race but also gender, sexuality, whether you have a disability or not, religion, age… the list goes on and on, but the important thing to recognise is that those experiences can be wildly inconsistent and, indeed, abhorrent and even criminal in the worst cases.
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback that they had found the week a powerful reminder of this and in particular to one colleague who said she felt validated after many years of painful experiences, including raising issues that went unheard. If I needed another reason to push forward on being anti-racist, that was it for me.
Personally, I agree with the sentiment that we will always have more in common than ever sets us apart and so this week we have launched our ELHT ‘Big Get Together’ where for the next fortnight we will have activities both organised and informal for people to come together and understand each other more.
This includes really tangible and necessary training on processes such as inclusive recruitment but also softer activities such as encouraging people to stop for a moment, have a brew and connect.
Truth be known, in the highly pressured world of the NHS that can be a challenge in itself but I aspire to the idea we’re all human and if there isn’t time for interaction and learning – particularly in a health care setting – then it really is time to pack up and go home.
On this note, let me come to a report that hit the headlines last week which was commissioned by the Government not long after the election and written by former NHS clinician Lord Ara Darzi. You will no doubt have seen wall-to-wall coverage of this under general sense of the NHS ‘is in a critical condition, but the vital signs are good’.
A quick search of the report will bring up lots of the detail if you want to read it, so I won’t provide a personal overview, but safe to say I recognise much of Lord Darzi’s diagnosis purporting to the wider NHS and, as I told the Trust’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) earlier this week, whilst ELHT is not immune to the challenges raised, I am confident we’re doing pretty well.
At the meeting, my part was to give an overview of the past year – 2023-24 – as well as a look forward to the year ahead and our Executive Director of Finance Michelle Brown also presented the Annual Accounts.
It’s difficult to make the AGM sound interesting with all its statutory requirements and for this reason we don’t attract a great number of people to attend – but I was pleased to be able to share some key and critical updates with the room and that these chime with the Darzi report did not go unchecked.
Following the publication of the report, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the NHS was ‘broken, not beaten’ and was clear there would be no extra money without reform.
The data shows that ELHT reduced its budget in 2023-24 by around £40million but by tackling this deficit through our commitment to continuous improvement practice, our performance – our ‘vital signs’ – showed that we saw more patients and for less cost than other Trusts in Lancashire and South Cumbria and indeed England as a whole.
This really isn’t easy to pull off and I have to thank each and every member of the team across all services and settings who delivered it. I was beyond proud to share this and will never underestimate the amount of effort that went into achieving that position from everyone involved.
On that point though, it is no co-incidence that both Lord Darzi and the PM referenced colleagues working across the NHS and specifically that they are tired not just from the response to Covid, but from trying to catch up, reduce waiting lists, manage industrial action and deal with the highest level of demand for care that we have ever seen in our 76-year history.
In ELHT, I am pleased we continue to focus and prioritise health and well-being for colleagues in a range of ways, including team and individual occupational health support, that aims to ensure there is always somewhere and somebody to turn to when you need it.
I can’t reference everything in the blog, but indulge me in mentioning one of my favourite colleagues Alfie the therapy Cockerpoo who never fails to bring a smile and a glimmer of joy to people when he is out and about across sites. I know simple things like this make a huge difference to people – and contribute to that important happiness factor at work.
At the AGM, I was pleased to share that we had again been above average in seven of the nine indicators in the NHS National Staff Survey for 2023 and that ELHT was the sixth best place to work in the North West. This I think plays out in initiatives like the Star Awards where more than 600 people were nominated for myriad impressive and often touching reasons across the Trust. If you need a reminder of the amazing team, please do watch it back.
In addition, I presented two slides which were jam packed with achievements and, testament to the volume, I reduced the font size as much as I possibly could to get them all on!
Ranging from everything from removing the crumbling concrete from our buildings, to implementing the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) last summer, to introducing new services, opening new facilities and persistently improving and expanding our offer to the community.
Again, there are literally too many to mention individually here but I will again make that link to the Darzi report, which talked about the challenges with our buildings, aging equipment and gave more than a cursory nod to the need to innovate using technology.
For this reason, when the PM said the NHS was ‘broken but not beaten’, I have to confess I’m not completely convinced.
Yes, it is undoubtedly tough and busy and relentless and exhausting. Yet we’re doing our best to see record breaking numbers of people with significant health issues and provide the care they need. Of course we can always do better and more, for less (and we are), but I honestly think that, all things considered, we’re doing well.
I know when I stood and reeled off the great many things we had improved or delivered last year – mindful that hundreds if not thousands of actions and activities didn’t even make the list – I see an organisation full of people that are making a difference every day and night.
So, to colleagues and patients and their families, I say we’re not broken and we’re categorically not beaten either. Thank you for everything you do. It’s a simple sentiment but genuinely meant and well deserved.
We are moving forward, we are making progress and we’re standing up for all the things we want to do and be, whilst calling out all the things that we’re not and will never accept as part of the Trust.
To our patients and their families, I will always concede we don’t get everything right, of course, but I remain proud of everything we are achieving nonetheless.
Remember this, please, when you are in the Trust or working with colleagues out in the community.
Be kind and respectful and treat everyone equally and how you would wish to be treated yourself. Know also, it’s likely you’ll be challenged if this isn’t the case because that’s who we are.
Our vital signs are better than good and ELHT’s heart in particular is beating strong.
Take care,
Martin