Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 19 January 2018
January 19, 2018
Senior leaders from across the Trust have been on site this week with ex-Carillion staff working on the new hospital. Toby has recorded a brief explanation of this week’s events.
On Monday we have, at City and Sheldon, another visit from the CQC to look at the pathway of care for particularly older patients. This is part of a review across Birmingham of how the ‘system’ works. I hope we can reflect with some pride on the work done to reduce delayed transfers of care, as well as the introduction of the ADAPT pathway, with a seven day social work model. We would all recognise that there is far further to go, but I will reiterate that much of the remaining change we need to make is in how we work, as much as in how partners operate. We are constantly looking to find the right models of partnership to advance the care of our patients, and we should see some publicity in coming days in the professional press for work we are doing now in Handsworth, and will do in future in Tipton, alongside the Modality GP partnership.
It will be obvious from this week’s news about Carillion, and specifically about our Midland Met hospital, that partnership working does mean one relies on others. And that sometimes can create difficulty and risk. As I wrote earlier in the week, and repeat in the film at the top of this message, our first thoughts must be with those people who worked for Carillion and who worked for sub-contractors, or were apprenticed through them. Unemployment is a healthcare issue, which is why we do so much locally to try to bring people through into our workforce. A secure job and home are the key determinants of health status. The new hospital will be built, and when we open, I very much hope that the facilities and shops we include will help to create employment locally. And more than that, that the creation of a new hospital stimulates ambition and aspiration in local school children to work within the NHS. We have been hugely successful recently in recruiting to nursing roles, and have more than fifty student nurses joining our substantive workforce in coming days, but we certainly have more to do to make our Trust an employer of choice in estate trades or in IT, as well as in key clinical disciplines.
It will take a little time before we see cranes moving above the site. Whilst there is understandable media focus on the level of “activity” on site today or tomorrow, my focus is on two things. Firstly, making sure that the team leaders and site directors for the project remain in place, paid, and able to provide direction and leadership. PwC have guaranteed such to the end of January but over coming days that needs to become a much more secure long term promise. And secondly, on finding with Hospital Co a new contractor or managing agency to drive the project, backed by the right financing model to meet its costs. We know we purchased the new hospital for a good price, driving a hard bargain as you would expect. The risk created by the liquidation must not be a new cost on the local NHS. You will appreciate that we want to keep you informed about what is going on, but also that some aspects of it are best discussed in private as the issues span organisations, and the funding is international in source. At the foot of this message are some Q&A notes and I will do my best in the weeks ahead to bust rumours and keep you updated. That said, our job and mission is healthcare not hospital construction and whilst the issues involved dominate the lives of a few of us, the life of the organisation must not be overshadowed by these matters.
Midland Met represents a new model of acute care. It will bring to an end stretching resources across two locations. It gives us a chance to create new teams and to offer better services. But the building itself, and even being on a single site, does not guarantee that improvement. So, if we have a little more time than we would like to move, let’s use that time to good effect to build the clinical model and the team working relationships to succeed when the new site opens in 2019, or even if need be in 2020. Lots of colleagues have visited the site over the last year, and I would hope in fairly short order we can recommence that process of familiarisation. Midland Met is not a symbol of corporate demise, or of PF2, but of future healthcare delivery and better outcomes and it is our actions, not anyone else’s, which will determine whether we fulfil the potential that the facility, which is two thirds finished, offers us for many years to come.
Questions and Answers – Midland Met Hospital – January 2018
#hellomynameis….Toby