Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 24 April
April 24, 2020
I am not a marathon runner (nor a sprinter since you ask). In fact endurance sport is not my thing, except occasional scratchy slow cricket innings. But I reckon this is the stage of the marathon where there is less attention paid. The crowd drifts away. There must be something else to focus on. The runner can only hear themselves. The whole thing is repetitious. Samey. The PPE guidance has not changed for a whole week! Handwashing is still the key point in Mark Anderson’s videos. Social distancing is still the paean; in parks, buses, canteens and staff rooms. And that’s my point. The difference between the lives we could save and the modellers’ curve is measured most in our willingness now to have habits and stick to them until they rub and blister. Over and over again. Oxygen prescription. Making sure someone’s relative is able to talk on the phone. Proning by guidance. Rest for our patients, and some for you too. Communication loses its novelty. Samey. Certainly.
So yesterday Chizo Agwu, David Carruthers and I presented your care outcomes to the Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Board. Sometime this weekend we will enrol all our data in the NIHR trial looking to understand BAME outcomes with COVID-19. This morning we had the Board’s Quality and Safety Committee. This afternoon I represented the NHS on the Mayor’s West Midlands Regional Briefing. All of us in all those settings trying to find the right balance between reassurance and learning, between candour and calm. There has been a horrifying drop in people seeking healthcare (heart attacks, strokes, sickle cell pain management). Over 300 people last week would not let an ambulance take them to hospital in our region, when a skilled paramedic triaged them to come. It’s evident and obvious we need to make it clear that you can safely come. We can manage the COVID-19 infection control. We do have PPE. So even if concern before was understandable, we need now to change the narrative. We – you – have learnt over six weeks how to balance this. That’s why you are amazing.
On the other hand, how do we save lives? Ignore the lockdown ending talk. B&Q opening. Hairdressers, not yet. Forget us opening wards or shutting beds. Set aside the Nightingales for now. In June we will look back on late April and early May and consider three things uppermost, I believe.
First and foremost did we do everything we could humanly do to help our care homes, our prison, those in sheltered accommodations and refuges, sectioned patients, and those in vulnerable settings? I hope you share my pride at the incredible work our community teams, our PPE procurement team, and others are doing to cut through red tape and obfuscation and just get stuff where it needs to be. Giving not just kit but advice, not just expertise but compassion. This categorically is who this Trust are. It’s the pride that brings me to work.
Second, did we push testing, with tracing? The strategy is late. It’s ham-fisted in parts. Infuriatingly so. But evidently we need to build a community resilience that creates confidence on the system, confidence that we can manage the virus, a belief that scientific study, not societal stereotypes, will define who carries and spreads COVID-19. So we carry on with on-site testing, home testing, Midland Met testing, taxi servicing people to tests, providing whatever help we can to get people tested. If you know someone who might meet the key worker definition, point them this weekend towards the web-booking system the Government tried to launch today.
Thirdly and finally, and perhaps most significantly, did we do all we could to put the best treatments the way of every Sandwell and each City acute admission from day 0? Was our escalation outstanding? So thank you in advance to our AMU teams, to trainees, to nurses and GIM consultants, ITU and respiratory teams taking the calls. 268 people have died in our care with COVID-19. All-cause mortality is up. The next six weeks are about how many individuals we save, how many families we help to protect. I am not appealing for effort. Effort seeps out of all of you. I am asking for innovation and for precision now. Making sure consistency of care is our very best.
Our Brigades do bring effort. But it’s clear this week across yellow, green and blue, that they also bring insight. Opening eyes to what our porters do. Giving ancillary teams a sense of parts of the Trust they might not know too. There have been some wonderful messages, shout outs and thanks all week between those signing up and those helping their new apprentices. Our Star of the Week this week is Ru Hazarika. A member of our Improvement Team, she has been at the forefront of getting started within our Green Clean Squad. She has spoken about being welcomed, what the work entails, and the difference it can make. Like a number of other colleagues, I am sure the mixing of teams will make us a stronger, more empathetic organisation for the coming decade. Congratulations to Ru, who role modelling social distancing in the sunshine admirably too.
This week we have also turned our attention to the SWB survivor stories. Seven tales of people who have made it past COVID-19. Drawn from all backgrounds, communities and ages, staff and residents. I think I thought I was going to end this week’s message by telling their story. Because hope counts. But instead I want to echo the thanks of a family of one deceased patient, Amrik Singh, who died in City this week. A man who campaigned on racism all his life, and who raised thousands of pounds for charity, not least by running 26 marathons. His son told us that “recognition to the staff at City General Hospital in Birmingham who poured their hearts into helping him, we can never repay the kindness you showed and the support you offered when we were unable to visit him. Heroes.” I did not know this gentleman, and I do not include him here for his eminence, although quite clearly from his biography he lived a remarkable and impactful life. I wanted to add his story to many others to acknowledge the gratitude I hear from families for what you are doing, and to put one more human face to this Pandemic amid a welter of numbers and statistics.
Look out for Heartbeat next week. Packed with stuff you need to know. Stories of colleagues doing the right thing. Learning from excellence too. On Wednesday we will repeat our COVID-19 WebExs at midday and at 5pm. On Thursday at 8pm here’s another #clapforcarers. This time next week I will be writing about COVID-19. Samey too. We get up and do it again. And that’s the next few weeks. Resilient. Honest. Caring. Thank you for doing this. For finding a smile on your patient’s face and in your colleagues’ eyes. Local people trust you. And rightly so.