Yesterday I was fortunate enough to spend most of the day with colleagues at Burnley General Teaching Hospital, which is a pivotal part of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and delivers a huge range of vital services. Every. Single. Day.
As someone who spends a lot of time in meetings and talking to people on a screen – it’s always the highlight of my week to see and speak to colleagues or patients and their families in person and I am trying to get out and about as often as possible.
I find it energising and it helps me to keep connected to the things that matter – the brilliant team here at the Trust and the care we are providing to our patients.
For this reason, I felt compelled to start in the canteen and check in on the quality of food available at Burnley for colleagues, patients and visitors and, in the name of research only of course, I can confirm it was absolutely delicious.
We have had some feedback recently about the availability of food for colleagues working evenings or weekends in Burnley compared to Royal Blackburn where there is a Costa and other outlets, as well as the restaurant. I know we’re working on improving this and there is no doubt it is a smaller catering team, but my experience yesterday was spot on in the restaurant and I sent my compliments to the chef on the stir fry.
I met with John Schofield from the transport team next, after colleagues were in touch with me with feedback and questions. I really value this type of feedback as well as the opportunity to explain the reasons for our decisions and promised I would bob in and say hello and discuss the issues directly. John seemed to really appreciate it and we had a good, open conversation which I thought was very positive and I want to thank the whole team for their honesty.
Next I met with colleagues in the Primrose Unit, which provides chemotherapy as a key function but many other related and complimentary services, including incredibly a 24-hour-a-day helpline. Having been at the Trust since 2009 I remember when this space was the children’s outpatients department and although the Primrose Unit is now about three years old, it’s still a very good quality facility, supporting patients with breast cancer in particular.
I was so proud to hear about their work and especially how during the pandemic colleagues from Blackburn, who lost their clinical space temporarily to support covid positive patients, moved over. It cannot have been straight forward when you consider the complexity of their work and the intensity of providing chemotherapy, but they evidently came together and got on with it and in the most tremendously effective way.
I’ve no doubt the flexibility, dedication and purpose of this team was at the heart of their response and it has stood them in very good stead as they experienced an increase in the acuity of cancer referrals and a need for more clinics and support. I found the standard of patient care incredible. Inspiring stuff and I am grateful to them for their time, friendliness and warm welcome.
Across the site I popped in to say hello to the teams on ward 20 and 22, which are community-based facilities looking after people who are ready to go home or working towards being discharged. Both were excellent. Really excellent indeed. In ward 22 I want to mention the quality of care indicators in particular which capture the number of incidents where patients come to harm, trip or fall over whilst on the ward, send complaints or are subject to any serious incident. Safe to say these indicators were really, really impressive and the whole set up was just a great example of a multi-disciplinary team providing the most effective care and support.
In ward 20 I met the team which has been in place just three weeks and I have to say what has been achieved in such a short space of time with support from colleagues in estates and facilities is amazing. I cannot believe something so established was mobilised so quickly and efficiently. A huge well done and thank you from me to everyone involved.
I also saw the ‘secret garden’ that estates and facilities colleagues have created at the back of the Victoria wing. It is a really lovely green space with trees and plants and somewhere to sit to take a moment, reflect or prioritise time out for mindfulness in a busy day. It is these things, the attention to detail and the care and attention to feelings, that I believe sets ELHT apart from other organisations. It is fantastic and I’m sure hugely appreciated.
Last, but not least, I managed to grab some time with the research team who are linked to the Family Care division and also our Directorate of Education and Research (DERI). I think it is fair to say this is one team which saw a reduced workload at the beginning of the pandemic, but is now busier than ever with Covid related studies.
I am not being dramatic when I say their work and research across the Trust generally is at the forefront of medicines and treatments of the future – and that is an incredible thing to do. They are involved in commercial studies and clinical trials which are developing and testing new approaches all the time. They will change the face of how we support the health of women and children, across maternity, gynaecology, fertility and other family-related specialisms. Again, I was touched by the warm, open and friendly welcome from everyone and the enthusiasm for taking some time out of a busy day to talk to me. It really is appreciated.
I want to mention also that yesterday morning I joined maternity colleagues Tracey Thompson, Sarah Loveridge and Sophie Butterworth in a meeting with NHS England’s Chief Midwifery Officer Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, who was appointed in 2019 to improve care for new and expectant mothers and their children and promote safer births in England. There is concern nationally about maternity safety but, I have to say, I think we blew them away with our approach, facilities and expertise. It was brilliant to see the assurance we could provide to them and ultimately it is great for local parents to know they are safe.
In all of this, I can’t say there was a stand out moment – but only because I was impressed and inspired and ultimately enjoyed every minute and meeting everyone equally! That includes those senior leaders that are based at Burnley, who I see regularly on the screen and not as often as I would like in person.
Everyone is doing such a great job and I would like to put on record my thanks. It is recognised, it is valued and it is appreciated.
Please do invite me if you’d like to catch up. Questions, ideas and suggestions are always welcome too. The most recent feedback I received was that the blog was too long. Unfortunately, this week was never going to be a short one but I know how busy you are and I promise to try harder next time.
Take care,
Martin