As always, it’s been a busy week but there is lots of great work going on right across the Trust.
I cannot tell you how proud I was on Wednesday when the Trust Board met for the first time this year.
The agenda, led by our new Chair Shazad Sarwar, was delivered across two separate parts of the meeting – one that is held in public and live streamed via our website and the other which is a ‘closed’ session for Executive and Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) to discuss more sensitive matters.
There are two regular items included in the session which I want to mention particularly. The first is my own Chief Executive’s Report, designed to provide a briefing to colleagues about key national issues and developments, as well as regional headlines and an overview of the work of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the Provider Collaborative Board (PCB) too. I then add highlights about the work of the Trust since the last Board meeting, including things we have achieved or focused on and the impact and outcomes of that work.
The idea is that these three sections together assist the Board to form an overarching view of activity and how the system is working effectively.
This report can be found in our board papers that are published here if you wanted to read in full. What I want to say though is that it is such a positive and incredible ‘round up’ of what we are doing across the Trust and the achievements we are delivering every day.
Of course, it’s not possible to include everything and my apologies if you feel I’ve missed anything in particular, but when you consider the extremely challenging and difficult operating context we find ourselves in, I think you’ll agree it really is quite the overview.
This was supported by Graham Baldwin, a NED and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire, who commented on what a useful and positive read the report was. He added that when you consider the daily updates in the media about the NHS, it provided a real alternative and positive picture of life at the Trust.
At the end of the report is a list of colleagues who have won awards, been singled out for praise and who are delivering excellence and innovation. I won’t repeat them here but I will say thank you to them and indeed everyone who is part of ELHT for delivering day in day out for our patients and their families.
It really is very impressive indeed and I want colleagues to know that this does not go unnoticed or unrecognised by the Trust Board.
Furthermore, during the meeting we also heard from patients and their families about how the team, right across the organisation, goes above and beyond to make a difference even when faced with very difficult circumstances.
Each Board we also hear a ‘patient story’ and these can range from when things have gone well to when things could and should have been better. The idea is to try and triangulate feedback so we get a real sense of what is happening day to day.
January’s patient story was heart breaking and uplifting in equal measure as we heard a first-person account from the son of an older couple who had received the most tender and compassionate care possible from colleagues across the Trust. The story described how people from across sites, wards and departments working together to make sure his father’s final hours were as dignified and personal as they could possibly be.
I wouldn’t do the story justice by repeating here, but the testimony of this man about how his mum had undergone surgery in Burnley as his father was diagnosed as terminally ill with between 24 and 48 hours to live was very touching indeed.
I was not the only person in the room to feel moved by how much the teams did to bring the man together with his wife and family in his final days and hours, so that they could be together at the end. It seems they thought of and achieved everything conceivable and when you hear it you realise how much of a difference it made.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this case for your incredible compassion. It was described in the meeting as ‘humanity at its best’ and I could not agree more.
This is by no means the only example of colleagues going above and beyond to support people at their time of need but as the story described, it was also ‘the NHS at its very best’.
That’s not say we don’t get it wrong also at times and I want to be open and acknowledge that whilst I get a great number of compliments, I also receive complaints where people feel the care provided to them or their family or loved one just wasn’t up to scratch. I want to provide assurance that we do take each and every one seriously and we are committed to both learning and continuous improvement.
In the closed session, I know colleagues in the meeting won’t mind me saying that they gave personal testimony to the services they had experienced for their loved ones who needed our care. We heard how colleagues from Burnley Teaching Hospital managed elective surgery in the most efficient way, discharging the patient quickly and smoothly into the care of our brilliant community teams, who then rang to follow up just a couple of hours later.
Another colleague described the care a loved one had received at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital too, praised the team for their compassionate care, kindness and sheer hard work in making sure patients are OK.
It really is so brilliant to hear when the team works.
But, to my earlier point, we did hear about one patient who hadn’t had the same experience and been sadly left in distress. This is always very disappointing to hear but the Board is in complete agreement that we need to know where things could be better. I know colleagues in the room are already exploring the case to see what happened and to ensure improvements are made.
I am proud of how we acknowledge when things need to be better without question, accepting that we’re not perfect and we can always do more. In my opinion Team ELHT doesn’t shy away from criticism but listens and makes changes where we can.
This does link to a comment made by the Chair at the beginning of the meeting about the unwritten agreement or ‘contract’ we expect to have between colleagues and patients and their families.
Recognising that at times of stress, patience can fray and emotions flare, but I want to remind everyone that we do have an active policy of zero tolerance to any kind of inappropriate behaviour in all our sites and settings. I want colleagues to know that it is there to protect them and we stand together on it.
I hope I have assured you that even in these difficult times we are here to help and are actively doing all we can to continue to improve. This includes remembering that we are all human and, as I have said before, only by working together will we get through the significant challenges we face.
This was also evident during our response to the second ambulance strike this week and I’d like to thank everyone who supported this across the Trust.
Take care,
Martin