Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 16 February
February 16, 2024
This week, like many others we have seen of late has been tough. Tough for our patients and tough for our staff. Day after day our colleagues are working to cope with a ceaseless demand for care, with patients arriving sicker or with more co-morbidities, amid rota gaps caused by sickness or vacancies.
Pressure now extends from the front doors of hospitals right to the back – ambulance handover delays are too long, and bed occupancy is too high, with too many patients still in hospital beds despite being medically fit enough to leave. These problems are having an impact across the whole urgent and emergency care system.
This has led to a number of Trusts declaring internal incidents as they struggle to make sure services are safe for patients.
Walk in numbers have increased and ambulance conveyances are on the rise again. Our poor patient flow, caused less by poor discharge numbers but the timing of said discharges, compounds the problem as that fills our small number of ED cubicles. The impact of that is waiting times go up and, critically, we don’t get timely handover of ambulance borne patients.
Our ambulance handover stats have gone from being some of the best in the country, to some of the worst in the region, in a very short period.
We have, despite over £1.5 million of additional staffing investment in ED and Acute Medicine and transfer teams in the last few weeks, struggled to deliver safety and a good experience at all times for ED patients.
This can’t continue, and so I have asked Jo Newens, our Chief Operating Officer, and her team, to look at creating extra ambulance receiving space as well as additional space for patients with decisions to admit, who are clinically stable and don’t need to remain in an ED. This is all staffing dependent, of course and relies on the support and input of our professional teams.
I know we are asking you and your teams to give more and more of the remaining ‘gas in your tank’ but we do really appreciate your efforts and need them to continue . As we prepare for another round of industrial action , I want to assure colleagues that there are key things like rota gaps, managerial support out of hours and extended hours catering that are being focussed on and covered and as an Executive Team we want to ensure you have as much support and preparation time as possible.
I am very conscious that we had to cancel the 2023 Leaders Conference and the disappointment about that was felt by many. I am therefore really looking forward to the 2024 conference especially as the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH), our flagship new build, will be opening its doors later this year.
This time together will be a fantastic opportunity for us all to focus on how as senior leaders within the Trust you will play a critical role in the ‘activation’ stage of the MMUH programme and be pivotal in ensuring that your teams are ready for the move. Given the scale and complexity of the activation and operational readiness work, this year’s conference will unapologetically focus on MMUH readiness.
If you are normally invited along to this event , you will have received the invitation ( on Event Brite earlier this week ) directly to your inbox. The conference , which is being held on Tuesday 23rd April at West Bromwich Albion Football Ground is a must for all leaders and if you haven’t received your invite, and think you should have please contact my EA Sophie Harris who is leading the logistics for the day Sophie.harris46@nhs.net.
Have a good week.
Richard