Last week I talked about how safe, personal and effective is our organisational DNA. This week I would like to discuss how Quality is central to that fundamental premise.
For years the NHS has organised itself against a single definition of quality: Care that is effective, safe and provides as positive an experience as possible. This simple, yet powerful definition, which is now enshrined in legislation, lies at the heart of everything we do at ELHT. Having a clear and relentless focus on quality means a concentration of effort on how we can positively transform the lives of the people who use and rely on our services.
Here at ELHT we have held Quality Walk-rounds to make sure it is at the forefront of our minds, but the arrival of the pandemic made it impossible to safely continue them. However, in stepped innovation and versatility and the introduction of Virtual Quality Walk-rounds which are held over MS Team and involve a virtual tour via iPad. The panel is compiled of Board members, colleagues from the Quality and Safety Department, Patient Participation Panel members and local stakeholders. I’ve had the pleasure of being part of several walk rounds, most recently for our Ante-Natal Services, but more of that later and this week AMUs A and B were our host.
Ward Matrons Victoria Blackstock and Claire Adams skilfully conducted the tour of the Unit and we were fortunate to hear very open and candid feedback from two patients. I always value the opportunities to see and speak directly (albeit this time virtually) with our patients and to hear of their experiences. It didn’t come as a surprise to me to hear how well their needs had been met while on AMU. I know how hard you all work and how committed you are to our patients, but comments such as ‘they honestly couldn’t do enough for me’ and ‘all the staff are excellent’ were a joy to hear and echo the sentiments of the definition of quality. The emergency pathway has been under considerable strain but this has clearly not affected the care you have all provided, which was described as ‘dignified and professional’. A true mark of quality care!
In the second half of the walk-round, the panel talked to colleagues from AMU about their own experiences on the Unit and how they had adapted to work in an environment dominated by Covid. Their resilience, flexibility and teamwork has enabled them to continue to remain positive and to cultivate an open culture of support, including great input from our Well Team.
Prior to the walk-round the panel received a pack which contained information on activity, incidents and complaints. But it also included comments, I read, at least, a hundred of them full of positive remarks and observations and they provided a testimony in support of the exemplary feedback we received from the patients during the tour.
It was refreshing to hear both colleagues and patients speaking honestly about what is important to them and to discuss how we can enhance, develop and adapt what we do to further improve the quality of services we provide.
Patients are excellent quality appraisers of our services and it was lovely to receive an email this week filled with glowing praise from a very satisfied ‘customer’. The patient wrote that he had attended our Burnley General Teaching Hospital site for day case surgery this week and although the operation had to be stopped due to complications, he couldn’t have been more pleased with his care.
He expressed his wish to congratulate the team for their professional support and care, which far exceeding his expectations. A special shout out goes to both Kate Fentern and Ellie Smith who went the extra mile to make sure the patient felt secure and supported during the experience. Quality champions indeed!
You may have already heard of the decision to pause the Pathology Collaboration Programme which will, in due course, create a single pathology service for Lancashire and South Cumbria. There remains absolute commitment from all partners in the collaboration to deliver the benefits this work will bring in relation to quality, resilience and improved outcomes for patients.
There are good reasons for the pause. One is to make sure we fully involve and listen to all our pathology colleagues. It’s also the reason why I regularly visit our Pathology Department and did so again this week. It is through this continued open dialogue that we will be able to develop a model for how the service will run in future.
As with all we do, I want to make sure that there is a rod of quality running through the future service, for our colleagues and our patients. So, this pause is a positive opportunity to carry out more detailed and in-depth engagement to be confident all options open to us have been explored. More on the progress of this work will be shared over the coming weeks, so please keep an eye on our briefings. In the meantime, I do wish to thank our Pathology Team for their continued input and all their hard work in helping to deliver good quality patient care.
Last week Donna Ockenden and her team released the Ockenden Final Report which is an independent review of maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. The report includes reviews of nearly. 1,500 families whose experiences occurred predominantly between 2000 and 2019. The impact on the lives of those families and loved ones is profound and permanent, which is why this report is so important. Their voices have been listened to and heard and the NHS needs to implement meaningful and sustained changes, in all services, not just maternity, so others do not go through the same terrible experiences.
The report also illustrates the importance of creating a culture where all staff feel safe and supported to speak up. We are fortunate to have a well-established Freedom to Speak Up Team who have worked tirelessly with colleagues to create an open, honest and transparent culture at the Trust. And, going back to my earlier statement, we have the Virtual Quality Walk-rounds which provides yet another opportunity for our colleagues to raise concerns and any challenges they may be facing.
My recent visit to Maternity was to conduct a Virtual Quality Walk-round and it was obvious from the start that there was a healthy culture within the team of transparency and excellent cooperative working with the multi-disciplinary team. In response to the first draft of the Ockenden Report there has been a renewed focused on the principles of the 10 maternity safety actions, and it was reassuring to hear of our progress against these actions. This progress has also been discussed at our Trust Board.
We must never allow ourselves to take the foot of the gas and let quality become some abstract concept or theoretical pursuit in times of great pressure. Our Quality Governance Team are currently working on the 2021-22 Quality Report to present to Board in a few months. This publication provides us with the opportunity to reflect on our quality achievements and successes over the last 12 months, as well as identifying areas where enhancements to quality can be made. It is a great annual reminder of how we continually drive quality improvement throughout the organisation.
And continuing the theme of continual improvement, at the Senior Leaders Group this week I listened to our divisions plans for our ‘refreshed’ clinical strategy. The ambitious plans rightly focus on quality of care and building on our restoration work. The final strategy will be developed in conjunction with our operational strategies and through extensive engagement with all teams and departments, both at the Trust and across the system. It will ‘reset’ our clinical strategy following the learning from the pandemic and will therefore reflect a more holistic approach of promoting and protecting our communities physical and mental health and well-being. If you are asked to support this work, please do. The most important element of our organisation is you and you are central to all our successes.
And finally, I had the greatest of pleasures of catching up with our top-
quality football team this week for a big reveal of the team’s new kit, proudly sponsored by the Trust’s Charity, ELHT&Me. Coach Chris Bentley has been putting the team through their paces in readiness for their next game, a ‘friendly’ against Senator. If you are a keen footballer and would like to get involved, watch out for news from our Well Team who will be offering six weeks football coaching for free with the chance to join the ELHT football team at the end.
Many of you will be on duty over the next two weeks which incorporates the Easter 4-day bank holiday weekend and I would like to express my thanks to you all. I hope you are able to have some downtime to reenergise your batteries. For others this will be a chance to rest, relax and for our Christian staff and patients, to celebrate this important religious festival.
I will be taking some annual leave myself and as next Friday will be Good Friday, this will be my last blog for three weeks. I wish everyone reading this a wonderful weekend and a happy and peaceful Easter - a time when we traditionally celebrate new beginnings. Let’s hope this new year (2022/23) is a good one for the Trust, for you and our patients.