Happy New Year to you and your families. Before diving into the first blog of the new year, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to those who worked tirelessly over the festive period. Your commitment and hard work are truly appreciated. I hope you managed to find some time to rest and have quality time with your loved ones.
As we step into the first week of this year, it's impossible to ignore the increased activity within our emergency department. I know that I have mentioned this several times over the past months, but it did feel as though it had gone up a couple of notches, making it an exceptionally demanding time for the Trust. I personally witnessed this during my visit to our emergency department on Thursday, when we had a couple of patients cared for on the main corridor. This is not what I or any of my colleague want. In my 14 years at ELHT, it's the busiest I've ever seen it, and this has unfortunately continued during further visits I’ve made this week.
I want to express my gratitude to our incredible colleagues who have been working tremendously hard to provide safe, personal, and effective care during this demanding period. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, thank you for all you did to get us through the challenges of the past weeks.
Predictably it has again been busy this week as we entered the longest period of industrial action in NHS history, which remains a significant concern for all of us. While I respect the right of individuals to take industrial action, it inevitably causes disruptions to our services and patients.
Fortunately, we have been able to minimise the disruption as much as possible. I’d like to pay credit to everyone involved in the careful planning, making sure rotas are covered and of those colleagues stepping up to the plate and doing all they can to lessen the impact of the strike.
It’s clear that the NHS as a whole continues to face a challenging and complex set of circumstances on top of our usual winter pressures that always come at this time of year.
Working together as team ELHT will be paramount in sustaining the fine balance between the number of people who need to come into hospital and the safe discharge of patients who no longer have a medical reason to be here.
And on that point, I’d like to give a shout out to our out-of-hospital services who play a vital role in our communities, supporting those with long-term conditions and aiding others in staying home or returning home without the need to access A&E care. Their efforts and support are vital to our patients and the smooth running of the organisation.
As an integrated care organisation, we work closely with our system partners such as social care, primary care, mental health and voluntary organisations to do all we can to collectively provide the very best holistic and person-centre care and support to our patients and their families.
While we ‘think’ we are all doing everything we can, please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas about what we’re missing or could be doing differently or better – if it sounds like a plan, we’ll do it.
New Year is habitually a time for resolutions - maybe giving up alcohol, losing weight, learning a new skill, or improving your diet. I applaud anyone who has decided to do something to improve their health and wellbeing. It doesn’t have to be a great undertaking, such as running a marathon or cycling a coast to coast, just eating a little less and moving a little more can make a big difference over time.
At ELHT, the importance of colleagues' wellbeing is writ large, with initiatives like ‘Colleague Care’ which we launched this month, offering colleagues various activities to support their health and well-being.
Colleagues can make themselves a priority in 2024 by tapping into virtual self-care sessions, joining the brew and Blue Monday event, or trying Qigong (pronounced chigong) for increased wellness.
My resolution, if it could be classed as one, is for 2024 to be less challenging than 2023. In some respects, it will be. Last year we had the go-live of our new electronic patient records system. We have successfully moved from the intense and stressful period of implementation and are now in a much better position and working on optimising the system.
We will also be increasing our bed base through the reconfiguration work being carried out in Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital. However, financial challenges do lie ahead.
I recognise the regulatory obligation for our Trust and the wider system to operate within our financial means. The Integrated Care Board is working closely with NHS England to understand the complexities of this mandate, and to negotiate a pathway that allows us to restore our financial balance over the next three years. While undoubtedly a challenge, it is the right thing to do.
Navigating through these financial constraints is just one of the many hurdles we anticipate encountering this year. No doubt, there will be additional demanding times ahead.
Nevertheless, I am confident in the capabilities of the remarkable individuals and outstanding services at ELHT, positioning us as well as possible to confront these challenges head-on.
I’ll finish where I started which is to wish you and your families all the very best for a healthy, happy and successful 2024.
Thank you for reading.
Martin