Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 10 March
March 10, 2023
As a Trust we have largely been unaffected by industrial action taken by colleagues across the country over the past few months. I have been very grateful for that.
The strike action being taken by our non-consultant doctors next week from 13 to 16 March will be the first to significantly impact how we deliver our services over the 72-hour period that our colleagues will be unavailable. It all starts from 7am on Monday morning.
Firstly, I would like to remind everyone that where strike ballots meet the required threshold, the Trust will support colleagues who wish to take their legal right to strike. During any strike action, colleagues in people and organisation development are in constant dialogue with union representatives to ensure the wellbeing of those taking action. You will have already seen detail of this in the communications bulletin in relation to upcoming strikes.
Secondly, I am relatively confident the contingencies we have put in place to ensure safe delivery of care during the strike period are the right ones. However, the length of this strike action and the impact it may have on our services, is unprecedented and should give all of us cause for concern. I would like to extend a massive thank you to colleagues for being flexible and agreeing to provide “acting down” cover and to change their already stretched clinical commitments to ensure that the safest possible service to our patients is provided. During the strikes, we are advising clinical teams to cancel all non-essential business and meetings that do not have a direct impact on the care we provide. All focus must be on providing frontline patient care.
As ever, safe discharges have a huge impact on capacity and how we manage the flow of our patients in hospital and into the community. Please continue to support patients with timely discharges – weigh up the pros and cons of our patients remaining in hospital and ensure you include patients and families in these discussions with a clear focus on what matters to them. Doing this will particularly help us while we are managing low staffing levels over the next week.
Ultimately, the resolution of this unprecedented conflict is in the hands of the government. Whilst we cannot directly influence the pay of our staff, we unequivocally support their right to take strike action and our responsibility is to do the best we can to manage the impact and mitigate risks.
Last week, NHS England carried out an inspection of our infection control practices which saw us achieve the equivalent of ‘Green’ status. This is truly a fantastic achievement, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication in maintaining our high standards of infection control. Although there were still some issues identified during the visit, the inspectors were impressed with our ability to understand and manage our risks. They felt that we all shared the same commitment to infection control, from ward to board, and that we had a good grip on the situation. You will know about my ambitions to get the “fundamentals of care” right. There is no better start than in the area of good infection prevention and control practice.
The inspectors also noted a positive change in our staff, who were no longer defensive but proud of their work. This is a testament to the hard work that has been put in by everyone and is an early sign of the locally owned quality improvement approach which will drive achievement of our strategic objectives. We discussed the success at this week’s Board and the Chairman asked me to convey his thanks through my Friday Message, for your commitment to providing excellent care to our patients.