I am always mindful of the blog becoming repetitive and focusing on the same challenges and issues each week, as well as recognition for the great work that goes on across East Lancashire Hospitals each and every day and night.
I suppose, in some ways this is indicative of life in general when you’re working full-time. You’re focused on aims and objectives, delivery of a service and objectives which become familiar and routine, providing an ongoing rhythm through days, weeks and, often, over years and years.
It doesn’t make the work you are doing any less important, just that you can get caught up in your world completely and it starts to blur and feel very familiar.
As with any role in any organisation, my experiences week to week are mostly in the same places, with the same people, attending the same meetings and trying to unpick and make progress on the same issues, although I would concede we’re never short of new challenges here in the NHS too.
Of course, I recognise I do have some influence over how I choose to spend my time as Chief Executive perhaps more than other colleagues, but on the whole I have a schedule that is largely mapped out before me as with anyone else.
That said, I always make a point of getting out, often spontaneously in a spare moment, to see as many people as I can. This is always the best bit of any day. Seeing colleagues doing a great job, often in difficult circumstances, which makes me proud and helps me stay grounded in what we’re trying to achieve.
How things are going – for patients and their families, as well as colleagues – is and always will be an important and regular requirement for me, no matter what else is going on and is crucial in informing our improvement processes and decision making.
With all this in mind, I took myself and the wider Executive Team at the Trust out of the ‘norm’ this week by putting some time aside to get together. I won’t call it an ‘away day’ as we never venture far from the main hospital sites, but we found ourselves a room in one of our peripheral buildings to pause and take stock.
For those who don’t believe in this kind of thing, let me try and persuade you of the value of taking some time out as a team, whoever you are and whatever you do.
Sometimes all we need to re-energise is a moment to stop and reflect, away from the phone calls, the meetings, the perpetual problems to solve, to just get together and share how things are going and what more we need to do to continually improve.
Some of it is just simple stuff, remembering we’re human and recognising that in a busy environment there can feel like there’s no time for basic interaction that matters to the quality of life and thinking.
In our digital culture, where meetings butt up back to back in diaries and emails hurtle in all the time, this could just be having enough time to grab a coffee or nip to the loo. I have heard colleagues chuckle about only speaking to each other as they cross paths running to the ladies – and whilst good natured, it just can’t be right or helpful when those relationships are tested operationally every day. I remember when we used to take lunch breaks or get a moment of downtime travelling to a meeting. Those were, indeed, ‘the days’.
Our world has changed dramatically and so regular ‘time out’ is a non-negotiable for me and an essential requirement for any functioning group of people.
I want to be clear with colleagues across ELHT that it’s OK to do this, even amongst the vast amount of work we have on, to take a moment for a cuppa with a colleague – a sandwich even – and reflect about what is good and going well or could be better as well as what is happening in your life and how you are feeling too.
Of course, one of the first things people do as part of any team building activity is agree ground rules, confidentiality and how people will work together during the session. It’s key people feel ‘safe’ to be open and honest and so I won’t share details here.
I am happy to reference we did it and it was energising for me just being in a different building and doing something I don’t normally do. Try it if you haven’t and recognise the difference it makes.
I will say – and I have asked if colleagues are OK for me to reference this bit – in checking in we were all asked for one thing we wanted to make progress on in the next 12 months. I wanted to share the responses and the challenges at the heart of the organisation (and I think they are indicative of the answers of many colleagues at ELHT if you asked them):
· Improving the experience across our urgent and emergency care pathways – especially the length of time some people are waiting for an inpatient bed
· Reducing the number of people on waiting lists for elective treatment
· Supporting colleagues across all teams, settings and services and especially thinking about morale and resilience of people who work so hard, every day
· Pushing forward with our inclusion plans to make sure everyone can be themselves and feels equally valued, all of the time
· Collaborating more with partners across the wider system to try and reduce demand and the pure volume of people coming in for help
These are also the topics I talk about week in and week out in the blog and it is reassuring that we’re all aligned.
But it is stark to see that the depth and breadth of the ask is real and our worry about how we’ll achieve it against the most challenging financial position ever experienced in the NHS is tangible too.
It was good to get together to ask if we’re confident in the plans we have, who has got which bits of it in their sights and what we need from each other in terms of personal support to achieve our aims.
The personal resilience of colleagues – and especially those in my immediate team who I am responsible for and am proud to work closely alongside every day – is of critical importance to me and anything that helps us to build our effectiveness will always be very welcome indeed.
If, as colleagues, we feel supported it stands to reason in my mind that we’re better placed to support others and in a health care setting that can only lead to better outcomes for our patients and their families.
That is ultimately our aim here at ELHT – to provide safe, personal and effective care for everyone. I am confident we live and breathe this across the Trust but it does no harm whatsoever to take time out every now and then to remember it.
Take care,
Martin