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Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 26 July

July 26, 2024

I am very conscious that in recent weeks I have written Friday Messages which are, if not downbeat, then certainly ones which have focused on challenges we face, issues we haven’t fixed or risks which we haven’t mitigated.  So, this week, I want to tell you about something more positive –  a working week for me which has shown us at our best, in so many ways.

So why have I had such a positive week?  Two reasons, really:

The first is a small thing – but one which nevertheless made me feel both valued myself and one in which I am sure the colleagues who I spoke to, felt valued by me.  This occurred on my visit to Leasowes on Wednesday.  As many of you know, since my first week at the Trust I have been doing drop-in sessions most weeks, and I rotate between our main sites, occasionally rotating through Rowley Hospital and this week, Leasowes.  I had lovely conversations with nursing, HCA, Chaplaincy and receptionist colleagues at Leasowes, ranging from busting some myths and rumours about MMUH, through to the unique and emotionally challenging role they play in providing end of life care to very frightened and vulnerable people.  My overwhelming emotion after going on Wednesday, was that I felt better connected and better informed.  Moreover, the positivity and empathy shown by that team to their client group, was powerful.

The second reason I have had a good week is because the executive team and I have explored, in some detail, how prepared and ready our clinical directorates and services are, to occupy the Midland Met this autumn.  I remind myself and colleagues in the wider system locally, that our clinical leaders and operational managers have a far greater challenge than in most Trusts, because on top of every aspect of service delivery and service improvement challenge, our teams must prepare, in eye-watering detail, to occupy our new hospital safely.  Here are some of the things which we explored and tested our clinical teams on this week, to give you a flavour of how detailed our assurance needs to be:

  • On-call rotas and job plans complete and/or amended
  • Theatre schedules and associated rotas complete
  • Business continuity plans and operational policies complete
  • Over 270 clinical “interdependencies” between services, explored and safely managed
  • Equipment requirement lists completed, assessed, and properly funded and procured
  • Induction and training sessions for thousands of staff, anticipated and planned for
  • Hard to fill clinical posts identified, with unique and bespoke recruitment plans for each developed
  • Space allocation in both MMUH and retained estate, resolved in detail, down to each clinical service
  • Clinical pathway changes/improvements delivered in the planned timescales, in line with national best practice

Overall, our Clinical group leadership teams gave us reasonable or strong assurance on most of these things, in impressive detail.  It made me proud of them and they should be proud of themselves too – everyone who has contributed to this planning and operational readiness journey, should be proud.  Every piece of assurance provided will form a detailed recommendation to our Trust Board about whether we are safe and ready to occupy the hospital this autumn.  This week gave me real confidence that, with some exceptions, we are well on the way to being able to do that.

Have a good week.