Hi All
As you know probably NHS England and NHS Improvement have merged, and on Monday morning of this week I attended a meeting with the new Regional NHS England/Improvement Directors together with all NW Hospital CEOs.
At that meeting we were reminded of the importance of keeping a focus on constitutional standards , and as you might imagine there’s no easing of the pressure upon us to give the best possible performance in ED, making sure patients with both physical and mental health problems are well looked after. We are continually improving on this and on Thursday this week, for example, over 93 per cent of patients were seen and treated within 4 hours through our emergency system. Thank you to every single member of staff for this, it’s a team effort !
We also heard from NHS England that the NHS Long Term plan – the plan for the future of the NHS which was released a few months ago - expects there to be greater collaboration between Trusts in order to make best use of workforce and specialist skills, as well as greater integration between hospital, community and primary care services. We have already started delivering this through our work here in Pennine Lancashire.
It’s the 71st birthday of the NHS in July, something we will all feel proud to be part of. Last summer set the standard for NHS birthday celebrations both at ELHT and across the UK, and this year will be equally enjoyable. We’re busy making the final arrangements to host a number of events at ELHT – more on these in the coming days.
I had the great pleasure to present Employee of the Month to Dr Philippos Kountouris – awarded to him following great compliments from his patients. Philippos is an excellent emergency department doctor who has worked at ELHT for many years, is well-liked by patients and staff, and someone who is able to be compassionate, caring and provide good clinical treatment despite continuous work pressures. Well done Philippos!
Thursday I met with our histopathology staff – a great team and it was fascinating to see the complex work they perform in turning a piece of tissue taken at a “biopsy” into a carefully prepared microscope slide, which is then analysed under the microscope in order that we can determine if it is something serious like a cancer or something benign which is safe to leave. They are incredibly skilled staff – this is highly delicate work that requires a great deal of dexterity, and the accuracy of their work is so important in accurate and early diagnosis of serious conditions.
Also this week I met the team leaders for our Allied Health practitioners and therapists. Our Physios, OTs, speech and language therapists, dieticians, orthotists and all our Therapists are an expanding part of our workforce, essential not only in highly specialised areas such as OPRA (Older Person’s Rapid Assessment), critical care, and acute hospital wards but also working in the community providing long term home support for our patients. Our future integration work in Pennine Lancashire will have therapists at the heart of it.
I visited OPRA to film July’s team brief, and I want to say thank you to the staff who work there; it is going from strength to strength and shaping a new model for us looking after older people with frailty who suddenly have a crisis.
On Friday, local MP Julie Cooper visited the Trust. It was interesting to hear the feedback she gets from her constituents (good and bad!), and we discussed ways of making our services as helpful as possible to the people we both serve.
The whole country will have hot weather this weekend – I hope you all have some time to enjoy the sunshine, remember to use sun screen and keep an eye on the latest heat information and advice from the Met Office! And when we say drink plenty, we mean the right sort of drinking ;)
I’ll finish this blog with a joke. If you’ve heard of Murphy’s Law (it’s that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong), then have you heard of Cole’s Law? ….It’s thinly sliced cabbage mixed with mayonnaise.
Best wishes,
Damian