Hello everyone.
During our busy, sometime hectic lives, in a world that is fraught with dramatic headlines and devastating events, it is nice to show our ability to be caring and considerate. Tuesday this week was World Kindness Day - a day which gives us all the opportunity to make the world a better place by celebrating, performing and promoting acts of kindness or good deeds. I know this is something that you, our staff, are doing every day. I am delighted to say I am confident that this runs right through our organisation and it is extremely timely that this week Prof Mike Thomas, one of our Non-Executive Directors, received a prestigious award acknowledging his kindness in leadership. Mike was named as one of fifty ‘Kindness and Leadership 50 Leading Lights’ by the Women of the Future Organisation. This emphasises the importance of kindness in leadership and how that has a really positive impact on staff engagement and satisfaction. I’m sure you all already know how committed we are to continuously improving staff satisfaction, because we truly value our staff – all of them; and, it is has a proven effect on patient satisfaction. You can read Mike’s story here.
The power of kindness changes the way we see the world. And this was evident this week when a patient attended our Trust Board meeting to give their story, following a recent stroke. Carol Pollard spoke of not only the quality of care she received both from ourselves and Lancashire Teaching Hospital, but of the kindness and compassion she and her family witnessed that elevated her experience. Equally, it was kind of Carol and her husband to attend our meeting and share their story. This enables us to spread the word through a first person account of what really makes a difference.
Our auditorium was packed to the rafters today to hear from three teams who are currently involved in transformation projects using national ‘Vital Signs’ programme methodology. We are calling this ‘the Pennine Lancs Way’ – it’s the “way we do things around here”. We are working collaboratively both within the organisation and throughout the Pennine Lancashire integrated care partnership, and it is having a real impact. It was brilliant to see the enthusiasm from both the people who are involved in the transformation projects, and from the audience who had gathered to find out progress. It feels like this ‘Pennine Lancs Way’ is gathering real momentum. Watch this space…there’ll be more information available on this soon.
Continuing with transformation ….the team have been carrying out fantastic work around the SAFER bundle of care. This is an NHS Improvement initiative, and is a combined set of principles to maintain the regular flow of adult inpatients through a ward and prevent or reduce any unnecessary waiting for patients. The team promote various elements of the bundle in ‘spotlight’ weeks – next week they will focus on the ‘Golden Patient’. We know that when patients are discharged earlier in the day, that patient flow is improved and this helps towards meeting the A&E 4-Hour Standard. It is with this in mind that we are asking each ward to get into a position to safely discharge one patient before 10am and another before midday. Staff will see more information throughout the week and on OLI the staff intranet.
Look out for the Clinical Audit and Effectiveness Department as they celebrate Clinical Audit Awareness Week (19 – 23 November). This highlights the best in Clinical Audit and encourages collaboration in improving patient care. Next week the department will have stands outside the dining rooms at both Burnley and Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospitals. Follow the Clinical Audit & Effectiveness Department on https://twitter.com/elht_audit for further details.
Until next time, have a great weekend, and as always, thanks to all our staff for everything you do.