I hope many of you were able to enjoy the warm bank holiday last weekend. My wife and I visited our daughter and baby granddaughter in the North East, and we enjoyed walking along a beautiful stretch of the Northumbrian coastline. If you’ve never been I really recommend it!
Many thanks as ever go to all those who were working over the long weekend, we maintained really good “flow” with a higher proportion of weekend discharges than usual, and this allowed us to maintain improved performance for the rest of the week. In fact our ED performance and patient flow this month has been better than last year, which is really good news.
Coming back to work on a Tuesday can always be a bit disorientating, but we were straight into our Executive Meeting. Believe it or not, despite the fact that it’s only August, we were going through the first draft of the “Winter Plan” for the Trust. We will be fully opening up wards B20 and C3 by the end of September, we will maximise use of Ambulatory Care facilities, and increase the number of patients using “Home First” packages of care. And to look after us, our flu vaccines are expected to be delivered to us in three phases from the end of September through October. I will certainly be getting my flu-jab, as I’ve done every year for the last 20 years, as I do think it gives me protection against the worst of flu. This year’s vaccine will contain protection against four types of flu. In the wider “system” planning for winter, we are working with the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to make sure there is good access to GPs in the evenings and weekends too.
On Wednesday I chaired a meeting of senior members of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and our senior medical, nursing and workforce leads. We have been building stronger and stronger links with all local Universities over recent years, and at the forefront of this is our Strategic Alliance with UCLan, which goes from strength to strength. We anticipate taking more than 150 medical students per year from next year. Many of these students will, we hope, then become doctors working here. We are also increasing our nurse student training with UCLan, and running a series of post-graduate and Master’s courses in an ever increasing range of healthcare subjects. And we have University researchers now partnering with some of our senior clinical teams in areas as diverse as endoscopy, hepatic surgery, and radiology. We expect to be going out to advert imminently for a Professor In Emergency Medicine, as a joint appointment between ourselves and UCLan, as just another example of collaborative working.
Next week (2-8 September) is Organ Donation Week and NHS staff are being encouraged to help start conversations about the new organ donation law which comes into place next year across England. If the time comes, we know families find the organ donation conversation with our nurses or medical teams much easier if they already know their relative’s wishes. So it’s important to talk to your families about your views on organ donation and to tell your family the choice you have made.
This week we gave our fond farewells and best wishes to two hugely loved members of staff. Marcia Haworth and Meg Davey both had their retirement parties this week, and we said a big thank-you and wished them all the best for the future. Two colleagues who have been working here for such a long time, they will both be missed. Good luck for the future Marcia and Meg!
Thanks as ever to everyone for your hard work – it’s much appreciated. I’m on-call this weekend. If you’re in the Trust I may see you around; if not, I hope you have a great weekend.
Oh, I nearly forgot….so here goes:
I shouldn’t have got ketchup in my eyes this week.
But that said, Heinz sight is a wonderful thing.