Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 1 July

July 1, 2022

This week we mourned the sad passing of our much loved former Chief Registrar Dr Vaishnavi Kumar; next Tuesday we will be hosting NHS Birthday celebration events across the Trust with a free ice cream; our POCUS team recently picked up the Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award at the NHS Parliamentary Awards; and Louise Thompson, Infant Feeding Coordinator has been championing breastfeeding by offering our patients support and advice as part of National Breastfeeding Week.

This week I had the privilege of speaking to Sandwell Council’s elected members about the work we are doing within the Sandwell Place-Based Partnership to join up services for our population. For many years, there have been pockets of good practice across the country, where working together in an integrated, collaborative way, with all organisations who support health and care, can improve patient experience, remove barriers to accessing care, and provide support to people at an early stage to maintain and improve their health and wellbeing. Our own organisation has led the way in some of this integration work, with our iCares team and Connected Palliative Care Service being beacons of excellence.

From today, that collaboration becomes more formalised for the NHS with the creation of Integrated Care Boards. This means that NHS organisations across the country are now mandated to work together, and must include key partners such as the local authorities and the voluntary sector. For our SWB populations, we have Place-Based Partnerships – one for Sandwell and the other covering Ladywood and Perry Barr. These local partnerships are where we are breaking down organisational boundaries and aiming to shift our services towards holistic patient care, doing as much as we can in the community rather than in acute inpatient beds.

The Sandwell councillors welcomed our approach and raised interesting questions for us to consider as we continue to develop the partnership. It was clear from their comments that they want to see evidence of change in practice. They have long been party to discussions about joining up support and with the new formalisation of these partnership we have a far better opportunity to make those changes than we ever did before.

I was delighted that the Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) initiative has been crowned the winner in the Urgent and Emergency Care category of the regional NHS Parliamentary Awards. Dr Sarb Clare is the champion of this innovative project that is taking vital diagnostic services out in the community to improve the patient experience and provide faster access to testing and treatment. This is a great illustration of how we are transforming care by taking what was traditionally only done in a hospital setting out to our communities. We wish the team luck for the national awards.

I know that many colleagues were deeply affected by the tragic news of Dr Vaishnavi Kumar who died suddenly. Her funeral took place this week where colleagues were able to pay their respects. Vaish was known as a shining light during her time with us. She was our Chief Registrar before moving on to a different Trust last summer. Her life and work touched many and she will continue to be an inspiration. Help is on hand for any colleagues who need support at this difficult time.

Next week we celebrate NHS Day – 74 years since the NHS was founded in 1948. We have a lot to celebrate as we reflect on the values of the NHS and how much it has changed since its creation. This year we are marking the day by wellbeing activities, raising a cuppa as part of the NHS Big Tea and sharing more information about our new hospital with you all, along with some free ice cream! I can’t think of a better way to recognise all that is great about our organisation and everything we have to look forward to. Please join in the celebrations and let’s thank all those who continue to support us throughout our NHS careers.

Daren Fradgley, Chief Integration Officer
Richard Beeken is away