Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 9 March
March 9, 2018
As a Trust we continue to focus on the experience of working here, in effect how we make our Trust a great place to work. All sorts of efforts contribute to that, including a decent induction process, good access to training and a commitment to high quality line management. Remember that all appraisals/PDRs must take place between April 1 and June 30, and all of us should have ours booked by 19 March. If your line manager and you have not settled on a date, please speak up!
A part of our effort is making sure that we tackle exclusion and unconscious bias. That has been part of the accredited manager programme. We want to see potential realised, and all of us in our appraisal, will evaluate potential as well as performance. The BME Stepping Up leaders programme provides an opportunity for some colleagues to accelerate their learning and career with us. We have deliberately organised this programme on behalf of all local Black Country Trusts, as we want to help create networks beyond our walls, and the chance to learn from and with others.
Despite the immense pressure our acute sites are under we continue to work to provide safe care. I know everyone is tired and many frustrated to be again faced with outlying and temporary wards. The combined impact of a 20% jump in demand and challenges with norovirus have put us into difficulty. The response, grounded in teamwork, has been fantastic. The underlying need though is to get our basics right consistently. In particular we have to become a place in which accurate and plausible expected dates of discharge are an important indicator of care quality. That will allow us to anticipate and respond to demand and supply imbalances. It will also allow us to challenge practice either where someone is sent home prematurely or kept in a bed longer than is needed.
Fiona Shorney and Elaine Newell have led our response this week to the pressures and I have asked them to share their lessons and learning from what has worked with the wider clinical leadership. Sometimes in extreme circumstances we find solutions which might usefully become routine. EDDs that are real are obviously one of those. Let’s not revert to dates which are known by all to be out of date! On our latest historic data on 22% of patients in medicine were discharged when we had expected them to be. If we change that our hospitals will be – and feel – very much safer. The current pressures are also the ideal opportunity to use the facility we put in just before Christmas whereby we can book GP appointments for local patients. If, in SAU, AMU, PAU, EGAU or ED we think a patient could best be seen in primary care then we should enact just that. The NHS is a complex system and we should not disadvantage patients presenting where they think best but in the wrong place. Because we can offer a date and time for that GP appointment we know that it is best to discharge someone with that confidence.
I know many colleagues are concerned about our fire readiness and response. 49 employees are now eight months behind with their fire training and that must be resolved in the next few days as a matter of good sense, and if necessary contractual obligation. Meanwhile Malcolm Partridge and his team continue our programme of evacuation simulations which we consider to be the best way to prepare for the worst. Our fire alarm alerts in recent days are, at City, a one off blip. The alarm system at Sandwell is safe but needs underlying repairs and remedy and that will be resolved over the next six weeks. In the meantime therefore we do need to act on alarms and not allow the over-triggering to make us ignore something serious.
A number of colleagues are presently struggling with Windows 7 computers which we will “swap out” for Windows 10. Based on feedback at Hot Topics we will create a drop off point at Rowley Regis for any community teams who have not got time to get across to the main IT hub.
You will have seen in daily comms the readiness work and survey work being done on Unity. The level of awareness and engagement is, I sense, beginning to build. All of the new computers are now out, so if you are seeing a gap or have a query on why a yellow “computer coming” sticker is still on your wall contact Dean Harris or log that via the IT Helpdesk. Walkthroughs of the new EPR in local areas continue and I would expect to be able to confirm a proper go live date during March. Our dress rehearsal is definitely going ahead from 16 April, with background testing from the week before. As we have said many times, please do not delay getting yourself ready – Unity is coming in the months ahead.
Next week I will circulate a message to everyone on next steps with Midland Met. Positive news I suspect…
#hellomynameis….Toby