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Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 27 December

December 27, 2019

Thank you to everyone who has worked through Christmas, into this weekend, and towards New Year. I am especially grateful for anyone who has stayed on or cross covered for sickness which continues to be above 5 per cent and is very, very high in a small number of areas. When the Trust Board next meets (at Rowley Regis on Thursday) I know that the focus will be on the 700 vaccinations we need to complete to reach herd immunity from flu. At the same time, I know going into 2020 that our staffing position is improving, because I can see the new starter numbers, the number of students accepting offers, and the progress being made with nursing associates. It is really encouraging to hear of longstanding colleagues working at band 2 level in our Trust who can now see a quick route to the skills needed as a band 3, and a career path to registration if that is what they choose. At the same time we are investing in the mental health skills and training of all our ward-based HCAs as we look to make sure we can match the acuity and complexity of the admitted population we now serve.

It is really important that in the year ahead we work to support and sustain everyone in our workforce. Our retention plans will look again at how we support flexibility in retirement and our pension seminars will be advertised in January, taking in evolving guidance about tax rates and arrangements.

That emphasis on you is why we are wanting to tackle violence against employees using evidence based interventions. Body cameras will become an increasing part of some parts of our workforce and workplaces. The evidence seems to show both a calming effect and a confidence building one. Elderly care wards, maternity and our community wards are, I understand from the staff-led working group, going first before Easter with this programme. Of course protective measures are not a substitute for decency and the right values, and so we will make sure that our Mutual Respect and Tolerance guidance is reissued, and that a central register of ‘red carded’ visitors and patients is maintained.

Next year does see the launch of our next phase Public Health programme on eating well, being well, and physical exercise in the workplace. We started consulting on this in June 2019 so it has had plenty of chance to germinate and take on board everyone’s ideas. You saw the planned investment in outdoor exercise equipment in our grounds and gardens consultation in November, and our indoor gyms are now both open and free. Vegan options are more commonplace in our outlets now, and I sense that Slimming World has been a really effective addition to our menu of options. Catering have done a frankly brilliant job the last year increasing their services, and new outlets are planned for ED and for BMEC in the year ahead. Certainly by the time the February Heartbeat is issued I hope that it is really clear how we will be supporting wellbeing at work, and the kind of activities that we will endorse within paid work time. The Trust is wholly committed to trying to support each of us to be our best self at work, and just as we have changed mind-sets about what is normal for the NHS with our #smokefree programme, we believe that there are things we can do differently to tackle obesity, to address exhaustion, and to help all of us to give our best at home and at work.

Perhaps inevitably after an election, local announcements are competing with national ones for air-time. The big picture remains the need for a strategy for long term care and social services. That matters to us as communities age, Continuing Healthcare Costs rise by 10%+ per annum, and we work hand in hand with local care home providers. We have had some recent publicity about car parks and parking charges, and will implement guidance from April when that guidance arrives. In the meantime you know that we are investing in car parks, and that we have a balanced system of on-site and off-site parking, as well as our car share app, and other public transport subsidised options. Given in particular the parking pressures at Sandwell, we will look again at the shuttle bus timings and scale to see what more we can do to support inter-site travel.

Policy, newsworthy as it is, is never a substitute for local quality improvement work. We will end 2019 with a whole list of teams rated Gold or Silver for their Quality Improvement Half Day work, and over 70 entries in this year’s poster contest (there will be another poster contest in 2020!). I wanted to congratulate those teams and publish here a roll call of honour for their efforts. It will be taking time within teams to plan improvements that will make the greatest difference of all to both workforce and patient wellbeing and service quality. Well done!

  • Children’s therapy (Gold)
  • Rapid response and medicine therapy team
  • Stroke
  • Rheumatology
  • General surgery
  • Care of the elderly
  • Obstetrics and gynaecology
  • Health visiting
  • Foot health
  • Intermediate care therapy team
  • Gastroenterology
  • Orthoptics/Opthalmic technical team
  • Newborn hearing services
  • Urology
  • Palliative Care

On 1 January I will circulate a brief message about our priorities in the year ahead. With the implementation of Unity and the steps forward with Midland Met, but also our first GP practices and the return of school health nursing to the Trust in 2019, it feels increasingly as if the strategy we have had since 2014 is beginning to become embedded. Of course getting the Care Quality Commission to see the value of what you do, and of what we do together, is really important in the year ahead. There is no good reason we cannot be rated Good, not just in maternity or community inpatients, outpatients or surgery, but across the whole Trust. Ensuring we hit those standards in 2020 is the focus of my latest Heartbeat article which tries to explain why I think that would help us to do what we do even better.

#hellomynameisToby