Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 28 September
September 28, 2018
You will have noticed perhaps that we now have so much going on across our workplace each week that my message has a photo montage, rather than just one pic, to try and capture that diversity. This week we had more IT related problems, with N3, and with home access. The latter continues as I write and I apologise to you, and your patients. Martin and his team are working to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the long promised WiFi solution goes live over the coming three weeks across our sites, including Leasowes. As usual, you can see this week’s IT performance stats here.
Acknowledging the wearying reality of the IT should not obscure some exciting things across the organisation that we need to celebrate and spread. One more plug here for our upcoming Quality Improvement Half Day Poster contest https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/governance/qihd/qihd-poster-competition/ . The contest has a cash prize, but equally importantly it is the chance to share excellence from any part of our Trust, and to learn together how to improve. This month’s TeamTalk video has my key messages, but it also contains a fantastic insight into the Silent Cockpit project which has run for some months now in maternity theatres: A simple but effective change to improve the experience of giving birth, leading to some great feedback from mothers. If we look at the human factors in what we do that can create error or risk, there is a great deal that we can do to lessen harm by uncomplex interventions, especially around team working and communication.
Ann Stevenson (pictured top right with patient Andrea Kerr) exemplifies for me that commitment to listening and to caring communication in our midst. Today was Ann’s celebration before a long and happy retirement. It was good to see so many people from all parts of our organisation come together to say thank you and good luck – next stop Puerto Rico. I know that Ann will stay in touch with us all, and will continue to bless the organisation and inspire many people across our sites. A new coffee maestro needs to step forward!
I attended today our latest Listening into Action (LiA) event with teams across hotel services and corporate senior nursing. The focus was on how we develop roles, ways of working and careers to value what is done by all of our teams, including our ward service officers – and how we build a real path from apprentice entry to the Trust, into senior clinical roles. There are no reasons why we cannot make that happen, but we need practical routes to do just that. So we need a solution for part time workers, with career breaks. We need self-rostering to try and create flexible working. And we have to embrace the role of technology in how we clean, and order, and plan our work. Like all of our LiA events, the emphasis is on the ideas of those working in the teams to design solutions – and then a collective effort, bottom up and top down, to make them happen. In these teams and in many other areas, we benefit from the role of our trade unions to champion issues and suggest good practice that we can adopt.
Monday has two big launches. I mentioned last week that Black History Month gets started then – with the ‘Here to Stay’ exhibition transferring into our Education Centre at Sandwell. The communications bulletin will feature national and local examples of the contributions made to health care and the NHS from BAME colleagues. Our organisation serves some of the most diverse but also some of the most long-standing diverse communities in England – our Trust needs to learn from and exemplify that. There are unacceptable examples still of racism in our workplace, but there is also a huge amount to celebrate in the work being done, especially by our BME staff network, and our Muslim liaison group.
Flu jabs and Star Wars are not obvious bed fellows. However, our May The Four Be With You campaign is coming your way already, in videos and posters. Thanks to teams across our Trust who have joined the campaign – do try and find your colleagues in the photos… The serious message is simple – flu is not a bit of a cold. It is a debilitating and in some cases life threatening condition. The vaccine is not a guarantee but it massively shifts the odds on your likelihood of contracting flu. And this year the four strains are covered. So please sign up to vaccinate your friends and colleagues. And please get your jab early this month.
The Trust Board meets next Thursday at City. We will discuss how acute services may need to change in the next year, as we get ready for 2022 and Midland Met. I know that a lot of people have already been involved in work to confirm which emergency services will stay on both sites from 2019, and any that may move to City as a first step towards our new build. During November, that thinking will conclude. If you do have questions or queries please get in touch with me or with Jayne Dunn.
On Monday 1 October, our winter beds open, and it will be the first time since 2014 that we have entered October with the beds we said we needed – not less or more. That does not guarantee a stable winter, but it does give us a basis to work from. On Thursday 1 November, we go live with our GP Single Point of Access project, which will take and triage primary care acute referrals into our Trust – with the aim of better directing patients to the care that they need, without dropping into A&E by default. If we tackle flu, keep our imaging kit working all hours, and get staffing right in our wards, we absolutely have it in our hands to make this winter more successful than last. Work in healthcare is stressful and pressured, and we want to see what we can do to make the infrastructure around you – both clinical and digital – help not hinder with those challenges.