If this week was a crossword puzzle, one across would be four letters with the clue ‘someone with an enormous amount to do’. You probably don’t need to be a regular to get it – busy! – and I know most people around me feel similar too.
One particular focus we have had for a while but has ramped up significantly in the last few weeks has been the push to see as many patients as we can who have waited for more than 65 weeks for treatment, with the firm aim of reducing it to zero by the end of the month which, if you’d forgotten, is Monday.
For this reason, we have been seeing people in every spare moment and counting down from an overall figure in the thousands just a few weeks ago, to 38 as of lunchtime today and a plan to have seen everyone we can by Monday. I know this adds extra pressure to already busy colleagues and teams, so I want to say thank you to everyone who has been giving this extra time and energy and attention. I know patients who have waited so long will recognise and appreciate the effort and especially when their lives are changed for the better afterward receiving the treatment they need.
We have also been celebrating the impact of a number of improvement projects which have been recognised nationally but more importantly are changing the way the Trust delivers services right here in East Lancashire – to the benefit of local people and their families.
As an organisation that lives and breathes continuous improvement, I couldn’t possibly mention them all without offending someone who is doing great work, but I do want to say that many of the key projects were referenced yesterday, when I joined the first group of colleagues to complete a new leadership course for a cup of tea to celebrate their achievements.
Part of their learning was around using improvement methodology to lead and deliver positive change within their own teams and areas of expertise. Everything from improving our urgent and emergency care pathways to a project to return walking frames and other mobility aides, the pharmacy team, DERI colleagues looking after student nurses and new approaches to urology and gynaecological care, as well as innovation in the care of elderly and frail people too. The depth and range of things being explored and progressed was massively impressive and reflected the varied talents and backgrounds of everyone who had completed the course.
These topics might sound simple or ‘easy’ to recognise and address but so often the complexities of the NHS and wider health and social care system make them difficult to deliver. Nevertheless, I am always convinced that small improvements make a huge different and we should recognise and celebrate even the most modest of gains.
A huge thanks to everyone who joined this leadership programme and of course colleagues who developed and delivered it. I am sure there will be many more as we invest in people and inspire them to always look for better or new ways to care, even amidst the pressure and busyness.
This approach reminds me to mention the Research and Development Team at the Trust who are just exceptional and, last Friday, celebrated #Red4Research day, wearing red to raise awareness of the importance of the groundbreaking research that takes place right here in East Lancashire every day.
As a hugely successful part of the Trust, this team is genuinely a source of great pride for me. We’re a nationally-recognised research centre and one of the top 10 recruiters for vital studies that change health care. We are particularly successful at children’s and stroke research studies and we’ve been behind the introduction of many recommended treatments nationally.
Only recently we were part of the study which developed a new vaccine which protects adults and children from respiratory virus which mostly causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can lead to severe lung infections like pneumonia and infant bronchiolitis and is a leading cause of infant mortality around the world.
Later this year colleagues at the Trust will start a new trial called MANTRA which aims to understand more about the use of antibiotics following surgery for patients with mandible fractures. It is an incredibly important piece of work and we have received £2.5 million of funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research to lead it, alongside about 30 other NHS hospitals and 3,000 patients.
I mean it when I say thank you and well done – your work is already making a tremendous difference and there is clearly so much more to come.
This takes me to the opening of the newly refurbished Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy unit – known affectionately as SACT or the Bluebell Unit – at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital yesterday.
It’s an amazing facility run by an amazing team who provide chemotherapy, immunotherapy and supportive treatments to cancer patients from across East Lancashire and beyond. The team had previously been working out of a space which didn’t take account of the specific needs of the team or patients and their families, but thanks to a three year fundraising campaign a £120,000 refurbishment has taken place.
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone involved, including a a number of fundraisers, corporate donors, the specialist cancer charity Rosemere and our own hospital charity ELHT&Me, for the hard work, dedication and commitment it has taken to achieve this. I know together they organised a range of quirky and varied fundraising activity including tractor runs, cave dives, pub quizzes, afternoon teas and tea dances – it has been a colossal effort and shows what can be achieved when a community comes together behind a single cause.
The result is a chemotherapy unit that will help us to provide an improved and more integrated service for the future by bringing SACT together with the acute oncology team and providing a confidential space for people to access support from the Macmillan Cancer Information Support Service too.
I don’t think we can underestimate what this will mean for the team but also for patients who are managing difficult and distressing circumstances with their families and friends. It is a great achievement that will mean so much and to everyone involved thank you. It is appreciated and will be for some years to come.
It was great to see so many familiar faces including colleagues and volunteers, as well as meeting the fundraisers themselves. In amongst this I want to give a special mention to Ruth Brierley the ward manager who is retiring in December after many years with the Trust. A big thanks Ruth and enjoy the next chapter in your life, you’ve earned it.
Similarly, I would like to end with a moment of appreciation for a friend and colleague, Executive Director of Finance Michelle Brown, who is retiring from the Trust today after 18 years.
I don’t think it is possible to ever really quantify a contribution totalling almost two decades in a few sentences or words – so I will just say this. Thank you, Michelle for everything you have done for me, for the team here at ELHT and for all of our patients and their families over many days, months, years and projects. Your impact has been nothing short of immense and I wish you a long and happy retirement with your family.
On that note, if you are not working over the weekend, make sure you get some downtime with your own loved ones. If you’re here picking up a shift, thank you and, please, find a moment for yourself too.
Martin