Like many people at the moment, I have been waiting for a procedure for some time – and this week I attended Burnley General Teaching Hospital to have it done.
It was nothing major on the grand scale of things, some minor surgery to my face, but these things inevitably weigh on your mind in advance and have more of an impact mentally that you expect – even for me, as someone who is in and out of hospitals and health care settings every day and have been for years.
Raheela Rafiq as consultant and Jo as senior nurse looked after me and, indeed, all the team at Burnley were brilliant and I said I’d give them a shout out in the blog. It is well deserved. I really appreciated the professional but personal approach from everyone I saw, providing exceptional care and a humbling patient experience for me, as Chief Executive turned patient for a change.
It has made me reflect – as ever - about the great team we have here at ELHT and, moreover, how important people are to any scenario.
I know most patients feel worried about appointments, procedures and the idea of being vulnerable to someone else’s expertise. As part of this, we cannot shy away from the long wait times that have evolved during and since the pandemic, with delays contributing further to quality of life physically and emotionally for those we’re here to support.
I recognise completely, also, the disappointment created when whatever people are waiting for is cancelled again. This can be for many, unavoidable reasons. Only this week, we have managed another four days of industrial action, where both junior doctors and consultants have walked out as part of a long running dispute with the Government over pay.
I have said many times before and will continue to affirm that we respect the right of colleagues to take lawful action in this way, but I’m so genuinely sorry to everyone who is waiting for treatment or a consultation which has been rescheduled as a result.
In the darkest, most frustrating moments I’m sure it feels like we don’t care, but please know that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We’re doing everything we can to reduce waiting lists, minimise disruption and get everyone we possibly can into hospital for whatever they need as soon as we can. Every single person, procedure, appointment, is carefully considered and often only cancelled last minute because we’ve refused to give up on finding a way for it to go ahead.
People – our brilliant people – are covering shifts, coming in when they’re not supposed to be here and digging deep into their own resilience to get things done. It is tough, but inspiring and incredible to see. Thank you to everyone, across all services and settings, it’s appreciated and it is the very essence of ELHT. We do care, we work hard and we’re doing our absolute best, always.
Taking all this into account, it feels more than a coincidence that Personalised Care Week starts on Monday and ELHT will be focusing squarely on how important it is to develop this approach as well as celebrating how we support patients (and colleagues) at ELHT as part of who we are.
In the programme of events, colleagues from the Personalised Care Institute will host a range of webinars looking at how personalised care is key to tackling the health inequalities so interwoven into the communities of Pennine Lancashire, highlighting best practice, looking at new research and sharing inspiring projects.
I look forward to learning more of the science and impact of the topic, but at the heart of the approach I feel confident are people caring for people, treating others equally and remembering we’re all human, no matter what.
At ELHT you will often hear about our commitment to safe, personal and effective care and I am proud it features physically across all sites and settings, often in very large letters reiterating its importance to our work and culture.
But more than letters on a wall, we often refer to safe, personal and effective as watch words for what we are doing, to double check we’re working in line with aspirations and, where necessary, to challenge others about their approach and to test if these standards are being upheld.
The idea of personalised care links in very closely to this and from my experience is evident across the Trust, day to day. Of course, if you aren’t happy with your care and don’t feel it’s safe, personal or effective, please let me or a colleague know.
To mark ‘Personalised Care Week’, we will be sharing and celebrating just some of the excellent work that ELHT is doing to embed it into practice. Our commitment includes:
• Ensuring every single colleague receives the ‘Introduction to Personalised Care’ when they join us, as a fundamental basis of our approach
• Appoint Personalised Care Champions in a Trust wide Network, this is in development but we have 11 people so far
• Completing Personalised Care Awareness sessions which include pledges
• Embedding Shared Decision Making, firstly in the MSK Physiotherapy team where 70 staff have been trained, clinical coding processes implemented and nearly 2,000 shared decision-making conversations have taken place
• We also have colleagues from the AgeUK Digital Health Navigator scheme in out-patient clinics to support people who might struggle with digital access to care and support
I know from my own experience this week that this focus makes a world of difference between coming in for treatment and feeling truly cared for by people delivering it.
I recognise this, have benefitted from the approach and know we have good people here too. All of this is fundamental to recovery and has enabled me to continue – almost – as usual this week, which I appreciate.
Martin