Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 5 June
June 5, 2020
There is a brief respite, for some of us perhaps, to reflect on what has been going on around and among us over recent months, and to consider too the outpouring of legitimate anger in recent days. I wanted to try and span those bigger issues with the one-to-one reality of life in the Trust. Congratulations therefore to Sharon Roberts, who was the shocked but very worthy winner of this week’s Star of the Week award. Sharon has been talking with people who have been isolated at home, and who we are now asking to come to one of our sites for treatment. That emergence from fear, that balancing of risk, the human contact, is in microcosm what this week’s message is all about. I saw a socially distanced Contact Centre team applaud! All of you deserve our thanks.
Thanks too to those who have reorganised their work to offer antibody testing at scale this week. Remember everyone who is not symptomatic can have the test with us and booking details are on daily comms. In our Trust, and seemingly across the patch, about 1 in 6 people are testing positive. Although washing your hands and standing apart remain essential, I know that for many colleagues, and maybe especially your households, knowing your status is really important. Please do crack on and get your test, because, consistent with our values, from Monday week we will open our slots to local care workers and primary care staff outside the Trust. That reflects the work we continue to do as places (Sandwell and Ladywood/Perry Barr) to manage the next phases of the pandemic. We are setting up our outbreak resources to be able to really support schools or homes or workplaces, even as the national test and trace system cranks into gear. If you are contacted by the national system and it relates to your out of workplace contacts you do need to abide by the instruction.
Today we launch our revised workplace risk assessment guidance. So if you do have underlying health issues, or are among our many black and minority ethnic colleagues, or are concerned for any reason, you may wish to book with OH for a revised assessment. As I explained here last week we are moving to more personalised PPE where we can, and are working through how to get more reusable protection in place too. The working from home guidance was out last week, and the team are out measuring office spaces at present. We know that some meeting rooms/MDT areas cannot match the space required and it imperative that you consider socially distanced alternatives like WebEx. Whilst most meetings in the Trust, including decision making management meetings are back up and running, they are on a virtual basis, and it feels like in many MDTs that way of working enhances participation and inclusion – especially by letting people join across site or from outside the Trust. Heartbeat is headlined – No Going Back – and I am sure that this is one change that will be long-term.
The racism so peacefully and decently protested in Birmingham yesterday, the systemic discrimination opposed by Black Lives Matter, is not something outside our experience or not relevant to healthcare. I wrote here in 2014 about institutional racism in our Trust. The report by Public Health England, led by Kevin Fenton, makes plain the impact of COVID-19 on communities across our area. The unanswered questions are both causation and consequence (or so what?). The Board’s immediate view remains that we have to tackle inequality within the work-place, persist with our work to recruit differentially and promote proportionately (both of which are objectively succeeding), and that the focus of our Ambition for 2025 and before must be on addressing poverty. I am optimistic that that later focus has broad support across the Integrated Care System (Black Country and West Birmingham ICS) of which we are part. Tackling poverty will lead us into making choices about how we spend public money but also reflects how we shape services to reach individuals and households in our communities sooner and more effectively. In practical terms as a Trust it means this: Poverty is our issue not something we will wait on other’s leadership for. It will drive the regeneration work we do around Midland Met, as well as the service investments that we make in 2021, 2022 and beyond. Understanding and deliberately focusing services on those least able to advocate for and access services has to be the outcome of all we see around us.
Change does come, it does happen. Sometimes in a rush. The Board yesterday, as you would expect, reviewed the Restoration Plan, our mortality analysis, the TRiM and stress risk assessment work, and a compelling analysis of end of life care and Do Not Resuscitate practice. I was asked what one thing from COVID-19 we had put in place that we must not lose. And visionable was not my answer. What was, and is, is that experimentation has become normal now. This new adaptability and preparedness to try things at pace is a precious skill for us to have, and will serve well the causes I have written about today. Reasonable adjustments for individuals and less fear of failure about service improvements. The learning spirit that filled page 31 of Heartbeat!
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