Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 28 December
December 28, 2018
It is my last message of the year, and there is much to look forward to, and some things to celebrate. Last week I hoped to announce today that we won some GP contracts, and to name the medical leaders who will take up deputy roles to David Carruthers, our medical director. Both are delayed another week, one over contractual niceties I suspect, and the other is because some of our successful candidates are on well-deserved leave. So hopefully next week we will also have our OJEU advert out for the final contractor for Midland Met, and thereby have a hat trick of good news!
Thank you, of course, to everyone who has worked so hard over the festive period. Whilst our waiting times for care have not met our hopes, we have stayed safe and within our bed base. The first fortnight of January will be distinguished by our work on safe discharge, and in December we met our own aim to reduce long stay patients in our acute bed base to below 100. This is a good step because we want to make sure the right patient is in the right environment. Compared to this time last year, we are making huge strides, with older people looked after in our specialist wards, and with cardiac, respiratory and gastro-intestinal patients seen by specialist teams. During January we will introduce much more visible ‘turnaround’ standards for patients having acute care, so that referring teams can set expectations of support teams and of those from whom tertiary opinions are sort.
One of the strengths of our Trust is that each New Year does not bring changes of plan or approach. So I wanted to use this message to highlight some continuity of emphasis into 2019.
Our number one quality priority will remain Sepsis. We continue to miss some screening opportunities for patients, and the Clinical Leadership Executive has agreed how we can in January work with ward clinical teams to learn from each missed check. As with our safety plan we want to make these checks an ‘always event’, and vitalpacs, for all its frustrations, does give us data with which to do this, as will Unity when it is installed. Unity will of course offer that facility to our community wards too.
Purple Point and our Speak Up days are two sides of the same coin. The first, our work to make sure carers and patients can thank individuals or raise concerns, the second, our campaign to make sure you are heard and feel safe to raise issues. In February we will feedback on the actions taken since our all employee referendum on your top three priorities, which concluded we had work to do on flexible working, internal communications and IT. After several weeks of success we have had IT issues in ED and blood tracking this week. From February everyone in our organisation ought to have access to a monthly face to face team brief, and we will publish a full set of schedules of how and where. In addition, we will be working with our Freedom to Speak up Guardians in the next three months to develop a new management code of conduct. I am hoping this will empower anyone with concerns about behaviours from line managers or senior leaders to feel able to step forward if they have behavioural concerns. Equally it will help line managers to be permitted to manage, which should usually involve inspiration and persuasion, but rightly will sometimes necessitate instruction.
The biggest single contributor to care in our system remains not us, but thousands of unpaid carers and volunteers. Some time ago, with Richard Samuda, our Chairman, very much championing this, we agreed that we wanted to do more to support carers. We have funded a variety of projects with this in mind and are always looking for more. Equally we know that for those who are alone, loneliness at a time of crisis is a major public health issue. Indeed loneliness can be the underlying cause of unhealthy behaviour or misuse of care facilities, like A&E. The Sapphire project is a patient-befriending scheme which reaches beyond hospital walls and supports people at home and when in hospital. Of course Sapphire also provides an opportunity for people to volunteer and thereby socialise themselves. I am delighted that this Your Trust Charity funded scheme has now got statutory pick up funding into 2019-21. Tackling loneliness is part of our Trust’s Public Health Plan, and a vital step in building community resilience in Ladywood, Sandwell and Perry Barr. If we can succeed in helping to do that it will address some of the acute pressures we face. So whilst it may seem nice to have, as a leadership team we believe it is an essential part of the work we do. With over 500 volunteers now working alongside our organisation, the start of 2019 will see a big push to bring more volunteers into our care teams. Here to stay, and part of our wider care effort.