Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 21 December
December 21, 2018
This is my penultimate Friday message of the year (and about the 270th I have written so far). It is an easy one to write in advance of Christmas and after the bonhomie of the decorations contest yesterday, and the various celebrations on our sites today. Next week I will look forward to 2019 and I hope to be able to make announcements about both our first GP primary care contracts as a Trust (I know Wolverhampton have done this, and we want to improve on that), and some new medical leadership appointments as we look to deepen the engagement of consultant staff in our senior leadership.
At the bottom of today’s message I announce our decorating contest top four, whose prizes will be available after Boxing Day. Thank you to everyone who entered, and to Richard Samuda and Dr. Sally Bradberry who led our panel.
We seem to be ending the year with slightly more stable IT than that with which winter began. It was clear however as the Chairman and I walked most of our Trust yesterday that real issues persist, with printers, with WiFi, with off-site connections, and with the speed of the machines we have. Remember from January IT Helpdesk tickets can only be ‘closed’ by you, the person who reported the issue! All of those issues must be tackled before Unity can give us the obvious benefits it offers. But it was also evident how much enthusiasm Dom LeGros, Annie Williams and many others have managed to generate about Unity. The all-site roadshows over the last fortnight have made the connection between safety, Sepsis, and Unity. I know the next roadshow push is on falls assessment and documentation in January, which is timely because we are seeing falls rise in our wards, and need to be open to tackling that. And electronic prescribing remains, for me, the huge safety benefit of the new product, and one which will reveal real issues we need to overcome around medication accuracy and medicines reconciliation. Unity offers us an HIE connection, which does give us insight into the prescribing history of our patients outside our walls. As we look to address the issues of polypharmacy, perhaps particularly with an ageing population, this is a key tool for our future wellbeing.
The New Year brings resolutions. So, time now to get serious about our anti-smoking arrangements. Less than 200 days to go, and the job adverts go out soon for our enforcement team. The cameras are going up in popular smoking hangouts so that we can make sure that visitors, patients and even our colleagues know that there is nowhere to smoke on our sites unseen. The benefits of driving down smoking in our communities outweighs, in the Board’s view, and my own, the messiness of people smoking on the roadside, although we continue to work with the local authority on how littering nuisance can be best policed and prevented. Of course, the best way to approach this is to save money and health by stopping, even if that means cutting down first. The Trust will be investing like never before in classes to quit, in nicotine replacement, and in vaping too. We will have a swap-shop approach because we want to help people to quit. Thank you to everyone who has sent in ideas, and it is very clear that many colleagues who smoke want to stop. Let’s make that something all of us talk about, as we try and reduce ill-health.
If you have read this far, you may want to know about the decorations. Huge effort went into the areas we visited, and we had a gratifying number of new entrants like medical illustration, estates, our IT helpdesk, the alcohol team and our Yew Tree health visiting team. Fantastic hand-crafted material is on display in antenatal and BTC’s children’s outpatients. Patients were deeply involved in the stroke therapy and day hospice displays. We almost gave prizes to D42 and to D6, and were amazed by the symmetry of Priory 4’s 400 baubles. But after almost two days of judging, we have awarded as follows:
- Gold Award for the most beautifully decorated
The Respiratory Team decorations in the Lyng: The whole team were involved and the panel were blown away.
- Frankincense Award for the most over the top decorations
Lorraine in Lyndon 2 has got everyone to advocate for her work. Matalan have contributed. And after many honourable mentions – this time we agree that the effort and commitment deserve celebration.
- Myrrh Award for the most imaginative or unusual decorations
Sue Harris, a maternity support worker on M1, has inspired her colleagues to a beautiful display. Somehow Peaky Blinders gets a look in, and a sensory environment is created that works with the main lights off and on.
- Star Award for the best environment for patients this Christmas
Serenity (I know we have clients not patients) is a truly beautiful example of both involving clients, staff and everyone in integrating the decorations into the clinical journey and thinking about how new born babies can be celebrated through our craft. Many congratulations, and a special mention for the recycling and upcycling component!