Published on: 21 September 2018

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Hello everyone, welcome to my blog this week. As ever, there is a lot to tell you.

 

The week began on a high note as I attended our NICU in Burnley to see some equipment bought from a very generous donation by local firm, the EG Group. Their £60,000 gift has paid for equipment that will allow safer, less invasive and more targeted monitoring of our tiniest and most vulnerable patients. We rely heavily on charitable donations like this and we are extremely grateful to the EG Group. You can see more here.

 

Whilst on the subject of our charity, ELHT&Me, I am delighted to report fantastic success on progress of the £1m appeal, launched in February to celebrate NHS70. To date, more than £340,000 has been received, with some significant sums pledged and yet to be counted. I’d like to extend a personal thank you, as well as thanks on behalf of the Trust as a whole, to everybody who has donated and contributed to this fantastic sum. It is a testament to the considerable generosity of our community. Rest assured the funds are all to benefit the people of Pennine Lancashire and it is all put to good use enhancing the patient experience and environment beyond the NHS norm. If you’d like to donate (and we’d love it if you did), please visit our website for more information www.elht.nhs.uk/elht-and-me-charity

 

The highlight of the week was our AGM on Wednesday, and for the first time in many years, we held it on one of our own sites, at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital. The formalities were in the auditorium and then on to one of our seminar rooms for a really enjoyable tea party – our last one for NHS70. We had a great turnout and I’d like to thank everyone who came – patients/carers, members of the public, staff and representatives of our commissioners, the third sector and educators. Two of our local MPs also attended – thank you to Julie Cooper, MP and Kate Hollern, MP. It was a really enjoyable event topped off with a very moving film reflecting the changes we have seen in the NHS over the years. We’ve also made a new film explaining how we spent our money last year – you can watch both films here. We also published our Annual Report and Quality Account and these are now available on our website here.

 

You might remember that back on 3 July, in the very week of NHS70, our Director of Nursing, Chris Pearson, hosted what we called an ‘Extreme Tea Party’ to celebrate. That day, we were the lucky recipients of a fantastic two foot, five tiered cake, made especially by local baker Molly Robbins. It was filmed as part of Channel 4’s ‘Extreme Cake Makers’ and the episode was broadcast on Tuesday 18 September. It’s great fun, and a fitting tribute to the staff of the NHS generally and our staff particularly.

 

Our CQC inspection continues, and next week, we will be having our ‘Well Led Review’. There will be another focus group for BME staff on Thursday 27 September (the last one was held during Eid, so this is an extra). Please take the opportunity to go if you can, and talk to the CQC about your experience here, what you’re proud of, and how you have contributed to safe, personal and effective care for our patients, whatever role you play.

 

So, thank you to the staff of ELHT who make all this possible, keep up the great work. Until next time....