I’m mindful of today’s blog being published the week before the local elections are due to be held, next Thursday May 2, and so for that reason I’m mindful not to stray into anything controversial or contentious.
But I do have a number of things I want to mention which, as ever, give a really good flavour of what is happening around the Trust.
The first is the kind of heartwarming story that I include in the blog whenever I can and, so far as I am concerned, defines ELHT as the uplifting organisation and inspirational team I see and hear about every day.
I won’t go into the finer details to protect the privacy of the family involved but safe to say they have given permission for me to share the story of a wedding that took place at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital over the weekend and, more to the point, the amazing people involved.
In particular, I send my sincere thanks and admiration to the bride and groom and all their family, as well as to the Trust’s Imam and Chaplain Fazal Hassan and all the team on B2 who came together to make a wish come true.
I would not be able to put it better than this tribute from those who were there, who said: “The whole day was magical and everything was just perfect. The bride was over whelmed and she said she could not have dreamt of a better day. The father of the bride was beaming with love and pride. A family member who had travelled from London said he would never see anything like this in any London hospital, and he was amazed at the dedication of the staff involved. Thank you once again for your help and support in making their dreams come true.”
It's an incredible and moving snapshot of the impact of the event which bursts with emotion and gratitude and touched us all when we read it.
Whilst this type of thing happens more often than you might imagine in the Trust, each is always special for everyone involved – not just the patient or their family – and I am always completely blown away by the generosity of spirit shown by colleagues in these times.
Then I check myself and remember that this is the true spirit of ELHT which involves a level of dedication that exceeds expectations a lot of the time.
I don’t personally know the bride, groom or their family – or the exact nature of the circumstances that brought them together in this way – but I want to send my own good wishes and those of colleagues across all services and settings. Congratulations to you all.
Thanks to the team on B2 and to Fazal and everyone else who made this happen. It is clearly appreciated beyond anything that can be measured and whilst the end result was described as ‘magic’, I know it will have taken a lot of hard work and emotional resilience to pull this off in such a positive way. Amazing stuff that is hugely appreciated.
Here I will make a shameless plug. The People’s Health Hero Award – which is the category of our colleague recognition event the Star Awards nominated by patients and their families – remains open for another week if you want to submit. You can find the details and how to do so here.
Whilst I am talking about awards, regular readers of the blog will know how much I value the Employee of the Month Award and this week it was my absolute pleasure to meet the April recipient, Eddie McMahon from our grounds maintenance team.
I know many of the team and the wider estates and facilities division - they’re another great, cohesive team who demonstrate every day just what we’re about as an organisation. They support colleagues, patients and their families in many ways – some you couldn’t even imagine – and so I love getting to see them whenever I can.
Eddie’s nomination included a lot of the characteristics you would expect of this team – doing a great job, speaking to colleagues and patients, being compassionate and going the extra mile in his work.
But, as is usually the case with this type of thing, Eddie was being recognised for his role in a specific incident when he spotted an elderly patient struggling along one of the roads at Burnley General Hospital in his slippers and with a walking frame. It was raining and Eddie approached the patient to check he was OK.
It turned out a taxi hadn’t turned up and this man needed help – but true to Eddie’s ingenuity and that of the whole estates team, he didn’t just phone a taxi to help. He engaged a couple of passing Police officers from Lancashire Constabulary and, upon hearing this plight, they promptly took him home. It’s a great story and I was delighted to present Eddie with his award.
In return, the team presented me with a photobook detailing their work to create the Garden of Memories at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital a couple of years ago – which was amazing to remember the hard work and the amazing result that lives on today. Thank you so much for everything you do as a team – I will display the book in Trust Headquarters with absolute pride.
Yesterday I was over at the Accrington PALS Health Centre to see our brilliant Therapies Team, who invited me to their annual service review. I am always pleased to take the chance to see people and hear about their work and progress, so it was great to go over and catch up.
The team are doing an amazing job supporting people across a range of services – but what struck me is that no matter how much they improve or progress they always have more ideas about what they could next for local people and their families.
They shared their priorities and areas of work and they really resonated with me and what we’re trying to achieve as a Trust - being innovative in their thinking, using digital technology where it makes sense, collaborating with others across the health and social care system and making sure they are plugged directly into our wider clinical strategy. It was impressive to hear what they had done but also how they still felt they could do more, especially to reduce patient waiting times and work more closely with colleagues in hospital services, as part of a blended and effective team.
Thank you so much for inviting me, it was a real highlight of the week.
I want to also say thank you to colleagues involved in a brilliant initiative which involved inviting a panel of young people into the Trust this week to help us interview candidates for a specialty doctor in diabetes. I had great feedback that the group of young people were amazing in this role – so a huge thank you to them too!
This is a really groundbreaking approach and the group were supported by Paula Smith, a trainee youth worker with the Trust, and I was impressed to hear they developed the questions themselves and showed incredible insight and valuable perspectives, which just wouldn’t have been part of the process involving a panel of clinical colleagues alone.
Chris Gardner, one of senior paediatric clinicians, said he spoke to the candidates afterwards who said they had never been interviewed in this way, but really appreciated it and found it powerful – a clear signal that we’re serious about child and family centred care.
I know the team are now hoping to progress this, in line with Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health guidance, and it would be brilliant if we could go on to include this as a part of other clinical appointments across the Trust too.
In a similar but separate initiative which I think really cements our determination to put young people at the heart of developing services, I met with a group of students from Sir John Thursby Community College and Blessed Trinity RC College alongside the Chairman and our patient experience team. The group had surveyed their friends and course mates about what they liked and didn’t like about the Trust and, most importantly, what they thought we could do better.
The headlines were heartening and provided food for thought in equal measure. It was great to hear they found the Trust and its hospitals a safe space and that their experience of colleagues was that they were kind and friendly and made people welcome whilst ensuring dignity. This is exactly the kind of feedback I want to hear as Chief Executive.
It was interesting that the areas they felt could be improved were, on the whole, already well known to the Trust as issues such as smoking on site and car parking. They also gave mixed reviews on our food and it was good to explore this a bit more as a notoriously difficult area to get right for everyone.
I appreciated their candour and courage in sharing their thoughts and equally appreciated that they listened to updates about our plans. It’s a great forum that I am keen to support for the future and so my thanks to everyone involved.
Here it seems fitting to welcome some new colleagues who have joined the Trust – our 0-19 team looking after young people across East Lancashire from Blackburn with Darwen Council.
I am planning to get out and say hello as soon as everyone is settled in, but for now a huge shout out as the newest members of Team ELHT and I know I speak for everyone when I say we are glad you’re here and we are all looking forward to working closely with you in the future.
On that note, I’ll end the blog for another week with a quick reminder of those local elections across England on Thursday. If you’re eligible to vote, please do. Your voice matters and the people elected have a huge and undeniable influence on our lives and our wonderful NHS.
Martin