Hi everyone
It’s Friday at last and what a week!
Let’s start with….you guessed it…..COVID-19. We all know this is a difficult situation that is likely to continue for some time; the last thing any of us wants is conflicting advice. It’s essential that everyone is on the same page and keeps up to date with the information that is coming out. This is so that any advice you receive, and you pass on, is accurate. Also, so that you know exactly what is happening when, and are fully informed about changes or developments. Consistency is so important so please, look out for and read the daily bulletins that are being sent via our communications team. All information already shared is available here.
I’m sending a special shout out to all our Practise Education Facilitators who are co-ordinating and delivering the FIT Testing that is required so that staff can wear masks if necessary. This is essential work and quite often, a thankless task. So, to each and every one of our PEFs, THANK YOU and keep up the sterling work.
We have just completed an exercise with NHS England to verify all our social media accounts. This is part of efforts to curb ‘fake news’ and to assure our followers that we are who we say we are. I’d like to thank our staff and other followers who take the time to point out when fake news relating to our hospitals and services is out there enabling us to deal with it. The communications team have asked that people take care when they ‘share’ postings and make sure the information is from a reputable source – there’s a strapline in that – ‘take care before you share’.
Employee of the Month is one of our most well-loved and appreciated initiatives as it shines a spotlight on many staff, both clinical and non-clinical, junior and senior, for going above and beyond their duties to deliver safe, personal and effective care and service. Occasionally, our EOTM story attracts external attention. This was the case with our most recent recipient who was described by Granada TV as ‘the cutest employee’ and quite frankly, I totally agree. Don’t worry though, this is not discriminatory language or behaviour. Of course, they were talking about therapy dog Jasper who has just carried off the trophy for March! A very popular winner indeed. You can read more here.
It was our public Trust Board meeting this week and despite these being quite trying times, there was lots of good news there. For instance, our final flu vaccination rate was in excess of 94%. That really is amazing and means that more than 7500 of our staff were vaccinated. Our staff survey results were also better than ever, again placing us in the top 5 of our cohort. Sustaining improvement, year on year, making good even better is not easy and is something we should all be really proud of. I know I am. It was very gratifying to hear really good feedback at a system assurance meeting with NHS England/Improvement this week. Each Integrated Care Partnership, so Pennine Lancashire for ourselves, in the North West has had one of these meetings with the Regional Team.
In our meeting it was confirmed that the Trust is well respected, and is within a strong system partnership, and its solid performance was noted. Our team performed brilliantly and it was noted how well they had a grasp of the detail and our plans to further improve patient care. And, more proof of this is available in a recent HSJ article about staff survey results and what they really mean for patient care. In a scatter graph published this week ELHT is clearly shown in a very strong position on a chart that combines performance with staff satisfaction to prove that the quality and safety of services is dependent on staff morale, wellbeing and sustainability - You can see it here.
So, thanks for all your hard work and enjoy the weekend. Spring is coming. Honest.