Hello everyone, welcome to my Easter blog!
Like Christmas, the Easter period brings out the very best in people eager to show their support for NHS staff and patients. For example, the League of Voluntary Workers at Burnley General Teaching Hospital have made yet another kind donation of toys for the Urgent Care Centre there; the Pennine Lancashire Stroke Association Choir have entertained patients at theRakehead Rehabilitation Unit; and a gratefulpatient’s family have donated a beautiful painting to the Royal Blackburn Chemotherapy Unit! Schools, companies and individuals have also donated chocolate eggs to the children’s and chemotherapy wards, and we have been given a cream egg for all 8,000 of our employees (we are in the process of distributing these so if you haven’t received yours yet, it will be with you soon). Thank you to all for your kindness.
Of course, many of our staff will be on duty during Easter, but the 4-day holiday weekend is also the chance for others to rest, relax and, for our Christian staff and patients, to celebrate this important religious festival. I do wish everyone reading this a happy and peaceful Easter - a time when we traditionally celebrate new beginnings. Let’s hope this new year (2018/19) is a good one for the Trust, its staff and its patients.
As you know, patient safety is our top priority here at ELHT – you may have seen our new campaign materials for ‘ID Me’ to ensure patient wristbands are checked regularly, for example. I am delighted to share with you some great news we’ve had from NHS England, and that is that our infection control team – working with ward staff across our five hospitals – have achieved a 10.1% reduction in the number of E. coli bloodstream infections. This is a wonderful achievement, excellent news for our patients and their safety, and just the start of our ambition to reduce gram negative blood stream infections by 50% by 2021. Well done to everybody involved.
The National Health Service turns 70 on 5 July 2018. Two weeks before the NHS was launched, on the 22 June 1948, the former German cruise liner Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks carrying 492 passengers from the West Indies. Some of the passengers were the first people to also work in the new National Health Service, followed by 200 plus nationalities who make up a fifth of the NHS workforce today. The NHS has just launched the Windrush 70 Awards, to specifically recognise and celebrate our diverse NHS workforce. Please take a look at the information here and nominate your colleagues.
I want to finish with a reminder for everyone to think carefully and make the right choice if they need urgent medical treatment. Anyone checking the Emergency and Urgent Care Waiting Times Tracker on our website this week will have seen that, once again, our A&E and Urgent Care facilities are extremely busy. It will almost certainly continue to be busy throughout the Easter weekend, so please consult the NHS website urgent care page and the advice on our Twitter and Facebook channels if you need medical treatment which isn’t an emergency.
As ever readers, until next time….