You may have seen the Trust in the news this week and this has primarily been for two reasons, neither of which will come as a surprise to colleagues, patients or local people, as I have shared them in my own updates a number of times.
The first is our financial position, of course, and I have been open and transparent about the level of overspend we are facing and need to quickly address our rate of expenditure. I am very conscious that it is the week before Christmas but I will say that from speaking with numerous colleagues I know this is an absolute priority and we are doing all we can to reduce costs across all areas.
The second is the continued, relentless pressure on services across the organisation, both in our hospitals and out in our communities. This always presents itself first through our urgent and emergency care pathways, most notably in A&E but, make no mistake, when the pressure is on it requires everyone in every team to help us to deliver safe, personal and effective care.
The reality is that urgent care colleagues step up, ward colleagues step up, community colleagues step up – we all do our bit equally and, in most cases, a bit more too.
I remain grateful for the amazing people we have in the Trust who continue to make a difference to the lives of our patients and their families every day. On tough days, it is this overtly evident determination to improve and pragmatism to overcome challenges that often keeps me going, so thank you.
It is the case, I think, that these two issues will be intertwined for some time and so it feels important to understand, collectively, what this means for people in reality. After all, ELHT as a community of colleagues, patients and partners is nothing if not a team and we must remember we’re all human, with our own personal worries and concerns.
Please know that we continue to operate effectively and remain focused on providing safe, high-quality services which are accessible to all. I know people would expect me to say that, so I want to provide a couple of examples of this to demonstrate the point.
I’ll start with our maternity services which are considered among the best in England and were recently rated ‘better than expected’ in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey. Responses came from mothers who gave birth at our flagship Lancashire Women’s and Newborn Centre in Burnley or midwifery-led units at Rossendale, Blackburn and Burnley in February 2024, when all aspects of maternity services were examined, including antenatal and post natal care, care during labour and birth. Parents praised the Trust for the ability of partners to stay with them as they wished, taking their concerns seriously and being able to get help when they needed it.
This type of achievement doesn’t necessary grab headlines, but supporting families in this way is surely one of the most important things we can do. It takes a lot of hard work from the team to deliver these amazing results too and I am so proud of their work.
Another area where we are consistently recognised for being good are community services, with more patients than ever being cared for in their own homes by our brilliant team.
Indeed, this week we had our busiest day ever, with almost 1,350 appointments in one day and every one of them critical to our operational success, especially in preventing people from needing to come into hospital. In October, the Trust’s virtual wards programme, called Hospital at Home, treated 1,568 people too. Here, again, we are leading the way in transforming the way we care for patients and improving their experience and their lives.
This approach frees up time, space and energy for colleagues working in our hospitals to focus on what they do best and let me share just a couple of talismatic examples which demonstrate that.
ELHT is currently the most productive theatre team in England, bar none. That means we get patients in effectively to have surgery which is often life changing. For this reason, it is no surprise that we were also one of the only Trusts to hit the national target to eradicate waiting lists over 65 weeks earlier this year.
There are of course other highlights from a performance perspective that speak to our strengths and ongoing commitment to patient safety, but let me share some feedback I received this week that I think makes the point better than I ever can.
I am grateful to the brother of a patient who shared this story with me and I’d like to reiterate my personal condolences to all of the family involved. That they took time to provide feedback during a moment of such grief is incredibly gracious and I hope they take some comfort in knowing it really touched our hearts in a difficult week.
He said: “On behalf of my family, I want to express our deepest gratitude for the outstanding care, compassion and support East Lancashire Hospitals provided my brother during his three-month admission to Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, where he remained until he passed in November. The dedication, professionalism and kindness from the staff brought comfort not only to him but also to us, as his family during such a difficult period. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to the whole medical team especially Mr. Sameh Ebaid and Dr. Rizwan Ramzan from A&E, along with all the nursing staff and HCAs on Ward C8.
“The hospital staff treated my brother and our family with empathy and respect. They provided exceptional service and treatment options, they treated us with care and respect and they treated my elderly father with upmost reverence and sympathy. They even provided us with a tea station when wider family came to visit at the end of his life.
“The level of care the hospital delivered, especially in his final days, went above and beyond our expectations. He was treated with dignity and respect until the very end and the unwavering support gave us strength when we needed it most. As a family, we will always remember the staff's kindness and the difference they made in my brother’s life and ours.”
I don’t share this to minimise the impact of headlines, to compensate for those who endured a long wait to be seen or who may have been cared for on our corridor when we ran out of clinical space, but simply to remind us all that we continue to prioritise kindness and compassion as the norm – and, in the circumstances, it would be remiss of me not to note that this is completely free.
It’s important that people know we are here if you need us. You can count on us and be confident in our services. The spirit of ELHT is strong.
This last point was writ large when I managed to escape from the usual cycle of meetings and other myriad commitments to visit colleagues, as is customary in Christmas week.
I have been honest in acknowledging in various forums that I struggle to balance the hard messages which come with our financial position with colleague well-being, morale and patient safety. You can imagine it’s difficult to do without appearing Grinch-like at this time of year. I don’t want to become someone who repeatedly and blindly asks for more.
But colleagues welcomed me when I popped in, were open in discussing our position and were honestly still quite cheery on the whole, which was great to see. Some even took the time to ask me if I was OK and it is this empathetic approach and true compassion for others that stands us in great stead as a team, even when times are tough.
I was beyond touched, I have to say.
As part of a visit to maternity, a baby was born and I was lucky to meet the new arrival and take a pic, with the blessing of mum. You will think this staged – and insert your own jokes by all means – but the truth is it was spontaneous and lovely and a much-needed reminder of the positive work we do and the immense impact we have.
So, I think all that is left to say is that we continue to move forward together as always in the knowledge we can overcome challenges and achieve aims because we are ELHT and that is who we are and that is what we do.
I know colleagues are focused on getting people home for Christmas and supporting each other to get some downtime and enjoy the festive period too.
To everyone who is working over the next couple of weeks, thank you so much for being here for our patients and their families. For those who have some time off, enjoy it.
I know we have much to do in 2025 and beyond, but that does not mean we don’t all deserve to remember everything we have achieved in 2024, which was a great deal indeed.
Martin