It’s fair to say that writing the blog has provided a new dynamic and discipline to the end of each week which I have not experienced before, but am finding really positive and worthwhile.
To be in the habit of taking a minute on a regular basis to reflect and to consider all that has passed in a relatively short space of time has demonstrated to me how quickly things develop and change.
Certainly, the last seven days have been busy and full-on for everyone across the Trust, for our partners and colleagues across wider public services and, not least, down in Westminster where whilst events have been perceptively seismic on a national and global scale, we wait for the full impact of Boris’s departure to land.
The changes to come, developing and shifting both in and out of view, will impact on all of us personally and for those in public services professionally too. I know some people disengage from politics and find it far away and out of touch from day to day life, but how the Government moves forward, with whom at the helm and, in particular, leading health and social care will be very important indeed.
Here in Pennine Lancashire, we have seen our own shift this week with Covid infection figures on the rise both amongst patients in hospital and people in the community, seemingly opening yet another chapter in our never-ending response to the pandemic.
We have taken action as you would expect, reintroducing face masks across all our settings, public spaces and offices to try and contain and control the spread of the virus, but how things are going to develop and just what the impact will be on the Trust and our communities in coming weeks and months isn’t clear.
I am conscious we will be celebrating Eid over the weekend, which is a time to be together and enjoy the festivities with family and friends for Muslims across Pennine Lancashire. Similar community-based moments have created infection spikes in the past and we may see the impact of it in the days and weeks to come, but I want to say a genuine Eid Mubarak to all who are celebrating – please do have a great time but stay safe.
The increase in infections and community prevalence does affect the Trust – and many other organisations and businesses. In addition to the reintroduction of infection prevention control measures including mandating people to wear face masks unless clinically exempt, we have to reinstate ‘red’ and ‘green’ pathways for people who test positive or negative for Covid and redesignate wards along the same lines. This impacts on how people flow through the hospital to receive safe, personal and effective care and means we’re unlikely to be operate at optimal levels at a very busy time.
Of course, colleagues are as susceptible to Covid as anyone else and we are already experiencing a rise in absence from staff who are unwell or need to self-isolate. It isn’t anything we haven’t dealt with before, but it is absolutely demoralising to bring back things we have relaxed and feel like progress we have made is now being eroded again.
Here I want to just remind all staff of the comprehensive occupational health and general health and well-being provision we have at the Trust and to encourage anyone who needs support or spots a colleague who might benefit from some extra help to ask for it.
The July edition of our internal ‘Well’ newsletter is out and building on conversations ongoing across the Trust there is a special feature about the cost of living and the support available, hints and tips on saving money and where NHS colleagues can get discounts. There are support and grants available nationally, along with our schemes, which might help so please do check out the information provided.
I know the Trust works hard to keep people posted on lots of topics, including the position on Covid as it develops in coming weeks. Please do watch our updates through the media, website and social media channels to keep in touch with all of the latest on Covid and everything else happening at the Trust.
If you work within the Trust I have moved Teams Brief to weekly on Tuesdays at 12noon – so you can dial in knowing the Exec Team and myself will be there with updates and you can ask any questions or raise issues, suggestions and ideas too. If you miss it, you can watch it back at any time using the joining link.
To this point, I wanted to quickly mention we held a ‘stakeholder event’ for the first time since before the pandemic last night, getting together with colleagues who work with us in a variety of ways through health and social care or local authority services or voluntary or faith organisations. It was, as ever, held virtually rather than face-to-face but it was an opportunity to let people know what is happening and for them to ask questions or provide feedback and ideas.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to join on what was a packed day but if you couldn’t make it, please know you can watch it back here and we’ll be hosting another one later in the year. Get in touch if you didn’t receive an invitation directly and think it would be useful for you to be involved.
I want to end with a couple of updates, one of which is very personal but I think would be odd for me not to mention, but I’ll come to that in a moment.
Firstly, I want to pay tribute to a friend and colleague I have worked with for many years at ELHT and who has been instrumental in the success and improvement journey at the Trust. Our Chief Nurse Chris Douglas, who I mentioned just a few weeks ago when she was awarded an MBE, leaves us next week for a new role in the Cheshire and Merseyside system.
I want to say thank you to Chris for everything she has done, often in very pressured and difficult circumstances. She has brought leadership, professionalism and very high standards and, beyond that, she has been a brilliant member of the Executive Team and Trust Board. We will miss you but wish you every success for the future.
The Chief Nurse role is a critically important position in any NHS organisation and so I am keen to find someone as soon as possible to join the team. I don’t say they can fill Chris’s Kurt Geiger shoes, but we need a colleague who can pick up the reins and lead our fantastic nurses into the future. The advert is due to be published next week if you are interested or know someone who might be able to take up the mantle and is in the market for a move. In the meantime, we’ll be ably supported by our Director of Nursing Julie Molyneaux, who will step up into Chris’s role while we recruit.
Alongside this I said I wanted to share something personal and that is that the Chief Executive role at East Lancashire Hospitals has also been advertised nationally today, sounding the beginning of a robust process to recruit a permanent leader to the job over the coming weeks.
I have said many times that I feel both proud and privileged to be the interim Chief Executive of the Trust and so it will come as no surprise to hear I’ll be brushing off my CV and applying for the substantive position in the coming days. I hope you’ll wish me luck and, as ever, I’ll keep you posted.
Martin