I am a Governor for Kettering NHS Trust and a while ago someone asked me why I did not put messges fram teh Chief Executive on my blog so here it is
A Message from Chief Executive Simon Weldon
Hello everyone,
I hope you’ve all had a good week and not been too drenched by the seemingly never ending rain! I thought I’d start this week by reflecting on my visit to Ashton yesterday, in my continuing exploration of the enhanced recovery pathway for orthopaedic elective patients. I spent time with Anne and Linda watching them help patients mobilise post op. As ever when I visit with a clinical service, I come away feeling inspired by what I’ve seen. The skill and focus that both of them brought to bear on each patient was great to see. I had the chance to speak to both patients and both of them were full of praise for the care they had received from the whole team. Talking with Anne and Linda afterwards, they also pointed out they thought we could do more as a hospital to attract additional work – in short we didn’t make use of all of our available elective beds. I think they are exactly right – we have acquired the reputation for not being as efficient or effective as the Woodlands just up the road. Yet that reputation belies the reality – we provide better after care, our outcomes are as good, and we deal with more challenging patients. I think we need to think further about how we promote the work and the services we provide – no one else will do this for us!
Yesterday evening I attended the Professional Excellence Awards. These awards recognise the contribution of medical teachers, tutors, supervisors and students. What I really like about the awards is that for each nominee statements supporting the nomination are read out. These are heart-warming: they show how teachers of all types consistently go the extra mile to support the learning of their students; they also show how students are pushing themselves to really do the best they can. This all happens on a daily basis and often out of view so it is so good to stand back and acknowledge those contributions. And speaking of contributions it was entirely right that the evening paid a special tribute to our own Director of Medical Education, Dr Fayyazz Hussain. He is stepping down from the DME role after 6 years and I think everyone would acknowledge he has transformed medical eduction during his tenure. I thought his remarks at the start of evening were so to the point that I’m plagiarising them shamelessly here: the world he said can be divided into people who see the world isn’t perfect and are overwhelmed by this and by those who see those imperfections and say that despite that, they will still try and make a difference. And what a difference he has made to the medical education of generations of students. We all owe him a great deal so it’s a pleasure to be able to thank him again for all he has done in this note. I was also very struck by Mr Khairandish’s eloquent homily on those from whom we learn the most. If you seem him in the corridor, ask him to tell you about it – it requires the element of performance for the full impact!
Also, yesterday – it turns out to have been a really busy Thursday – we had our Progress Review Meeting with NHSE/I. Note especially the joint acronym there – we are now in a new regulatory regime where we have one regulatory conversation as opposed to two. As I have said, this can only be for the good. In straightforward terms, we only have one pot of money for Northamptonshire and that pot has to deliver both safe, high quality clinical services and do so within a fixed financial envelope. In previous years, the money conversation has generally happened in one place and the quality conversation in another and that has led to some difficulties in reconciling those aims and being clear about the priorities. So having one conversation has to be the right way forward. Early days but hopeful signs is my view.
On a day that wasn’t Thursday – Tuesday in fact – we had our leadership brief hosted by Mark. You can find the slides herehttp://kghintranet/Pages/Default.aspx . We spent time talking about the health and well-being plan. This included a memorable repackaging of the YMCA dance. I’m reliably informed there is some video footage of this somewhere which I’m sure can be made available for the usual fee. A personal highlight for me, was meeting Ernie, the Pets as Therapy dog, who won a CARE award. Again, photos are available!
Finally, also on Tuesday, we had EGM, my senior team meeting. I talked about the upcoming work on estates. There’s a lot to say about that in due course but one thing to highlight here. I know we’ve got quite a few services which have ended up in places that are less than ideal, often on the basis of sorting out a short-term problem. The TOPs service is probably one of the prime examples of this. Just to say here I’ve asked for the list of those services to be pulled together across the hospital so we can start sorting them out. Eileen is leading that work so let her know if you’ve any areas that you want to be considered.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend.
Simon
Simon Weldon
Chief Executive
