I’ve returned to work this week after some much needed time off and it’s been really great to spend time with loved ones and relax.
I’ve said before how important I think it is to take leave to support your health and well-being, but I acknowledge it can feel somehow ‘wrong’ to walk away and take time out when we’re so busy and colleagues are left behind to manage without you.
But it’s a simple fact in my mind that if we don’t take time for ourselves, to refresh, re-energise and recuperate with those who are most important to us, then we can very quickly slip into a relentless cycle of work, work and more work – and that’s where the danger of burn out comes in.
The foundation of ELHT is teamwork and you will often hear people describe the Trust as a family. This is evident each and every day where simple practice such as taking turns to take a break or longer periods of leave as well as redeploying from one team into another when additional support is needed, is also overlaid by those small kindnesses between colleagues who have become friends.
This was writ large throughout the nominations in the recent Star Awards, where colleagues described those who inspired them, often with little things such as flowers or a cake when shifts are tough, recognising when someone needed a minute, a steadying hand or a hug.
Supporting – encouraging even – each other to take leave, guilt free, to promote positive health and well-being is one of the greatest gifts we can give at the moment. Trusting others to take up the slack, manage in your absence, grow themselves from the experience and, when it is their turn, to do the same and take time off without any emotional burden is key.
It is hard when we are pressured with very high demand and often struggling to fill shifts, but we have to find a way to manage it between us and I believe it can be done without compromising safe, personal and effective care. Anything otherwise and we risk establishing a completely unsustainable model with one of my biggest fears realised - and that’s losing any of the great people who work here.
So, for me, a couple of thank you’s for the last week, including Tony McDonald for picking up the guest blog, Jawad Husain for deputising as Chief Executive and for colleagues across the Trust Board, Exec team and senior leaders across the organisation for their support in handling what has clearly been another very challenging time.
Whilst I advocate switching off, I’m not too proud to admit I personally find that difficult and I did keep abreast of the issues during the week. For me this is about checking in and be assured people are OK, which causes me less worry than not doing it and not knowing what is going on.
One of the biggest concerns for the Trust at the moment is the rise of Covid positive inpatients. In the last few weeks we have seen a worrying trend of people coming in for treatment for Covid itself, compared to the last few months where patients were admitted for something else and happened to have the virus too.
This is a disheartening and worrying trend and perhaps suggests that the effects of vaccination are beginning to wear off, leaving those who are most vulnerable and susceptible prone once more.
The demand across all services and settings also continues to be relentless and the additional infection prevention control measures implemented and managed as the number of Covid positive inpatients increases makes everything significantly more difficult.
To give an idea of scale, we have seen more than 18,000 people through our urgent and emergency pathways in June. This is consistent with the number of people in May and July so far. If you are one of those people and experienced a long wait to be seen or subsequently admitted I am sorry, but we are genuinely doing everything possible in very difficult circumstances indeed.
Everyone at ELHT is working incredibly hard and we are making improvements every day, with our performance against the target to see people within 4-hours of coming into A&E increasing to over 80 per cent this week. Of course, we would want this to be 100 per cent, but considering the volume of people and the pressure on colleagues and services, it is a huge achievement and a positive affirmation of the hard work and efforts going on every day.
I want to say thank you to colleagues and acknowledge this is no mean feat in the circumstances.
We continue to work closely with partners in other teams across the wider health and social care system to do everything we can together to make sure those who need to be admitted into hospital are prioritised and ensure those who no longer need to be here can be safely discharged.
I want to say thank you to everyone who is supporting this important work too. It is only through a whole system approach, working seamlessly together, that we will ensure people receive the support, care and treatment they need.
In amongst of all this we should never forget there is an army of support teams working across the Trust to ‘keep the show on the road’ and ensure clinicians can get on and treat patients. This includes all the obvious people who are keeping everything clean, stocked up and in good working order, as well as corporate services who work tirelessly to manage buildings safely, fill vacancies, keep everyone informed and connected and some of the really simple but most important tasks such as paying colleagues and looking after their health and well-being too.
Please, accept this is a snapshot and not an exhaustive list as I could never mention everyone who is contributing to the overall success of the Trust in a single blog, but the point I am making is that this is a team effort and every single person is critical to our success.
I want to shout out colleagues in IT this week though in particular who have been battling to manage the impact of a faulty hardware component, which failed and caused issues across all areas. It’s clear that in a 24/7 service you cannot take risks when trying to diagnose, identify and fix issues like you might at home or in different organisations. It’s been stressful and pressured to repair whilst ensuring vital systems remain operational and I want to thank everyone who has worked to find solutions that don’t compromise patient or colleague safety at any time.
This is just one example of the complex situations we’re dealing with and overcoming every day. I am so proud of everything we continue to achieve.
Lastly, it would be remiss of me not to recap the news that the Chairman of East Lancashire Hospitals Professor Eileen Fairhurst is moving onto take up the same role at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust in the neighbouring Greater Manchester system.
There will be plenty of time to say our goodbyes and thanks as well as hearing directly from Professor Fairhurst before she officially leaves us, but I know everyone at the Trust joins me in offering our sincere congratulations on her new role. Her leaving date will be agreed in due course, alongside plans to recruit a new Chairman and so I will keep you posted of both.
Martin