Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 18 November
November 18, 2022
Congratulations to the team who represented our Trust at the Health Service Journal awards last night. Although we were not the winners on the night it is a huge accolade to be a finalist in such a highly contested awards scheme. The shortlisted initiative is EPICENTRE, led by Dr Sarb Clare along with other colleagues, which delivers high quality acute medical treatment to patients at home without the need for a patient stay in hospital. It is a fantastic example of the level of care that can be provided to patients in their own homes and is exactly the type of service that we need to see more of in our communities.
Our Trust is an integrated care organisation. Our vision is to be the most integrated healthcare provider in the NHS, which means we run a range of patient services both in the community and in hospital settings. We should be thinking of ourselves as a community organisation who also run hospitals and not the other way round.
This week we took part in a system-wide healthcare campaign to showcase health care services across the Black Country that care for people in their own homes or facilitate an earlier discharge home. Do head to our social media channels and search #BlackCountryHealth247 if you haven’t yet seen it. Our community nursing service was featured, shining a spotlight on those staff who go above and beyond, day and night, to help people with care and treatment in their own homes. This is the best place for care for many patients and their families and all of us need to consider how we can continue to think about care at home rather than in hospitals. Acute colleagues need to work constructively with community services as we are #oneteam and we must all learn more about the services that we have in place, or in development, in our communities such as virtual wards, urgent community response and Harvest View intermediate care centre which is set to open later this month.
Right across our system, many people are working hard to provide quick treatment in clinics or longer-term care at home. All of this helps people avoid a hospital stay and enable the people who really do need to be in a hospital bed to get there at the right time which is essential for our clinical service model. That care model needs to be in place well in advance of when the Midland Met opens.
“Home first” must remain our mantra as we continue to develop our services. Our Trust is a leader in this field and I am confident that, through our partnerships with primary care, social care, mental health and the voluntary sector we can keep striving towards our vision to be the most integrated care Trust in the country.