CEO Gavin Boyle’s 2019 highlights
It’s becoming an annual tradition for me to share my highlights from the year. Before I give you the run down, I want to say thank you. This year has been another big one and we’ve faced some big challenges but have achieved so much too. Together, we’ve made a difference to the lives of many and have shown kindness to each other. We’ve listened, pushed boundaries and challenged ourselves – earning a ‘Good’ rating from the CQC along the way.
I wanted to share some really exciting news that we’ve heard this week: Elizabeth Evans, former stoma nurse at Royal Derby Hospital, has been named in the New Year’s honour list. Elizabeth, or Lizzy as she’s known by her friends and colleagues, will receive an MBE in 2020. We’re exceptionally proud; Lizzy dedicated 37 years of her life to nursing in Derby, 27 of which were spent supporting patients through their stoma journey.
January
In creating UHDB, we wanted to achieve three aims; sustain important local services at Queen’s Hospital Burton (QHB), provide Royal Derby Hospital (RDH) with a bigger population to help support and grow our specialist services, research and education interests, and also to make best use of our community hospitals in Lichfield, Tamworth and Derby by working together with our partners across Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
In January, we started to see some tangible evidence that the merger had led to better outcomes for patients. Mortality rates for patients at QHB with an Acute Kidney Injury dropped from 27% to below 13% thanks to amazing partnership working between our medical and clinical staff.
Our estates team did an excellent job in getting the RDH modular ward opened and ready for the first patients to be moved in as part of our Winter plan. Patients continue to be very complimentary about the new ward’s facilities.
We also launched our time for tea events in January – if you haven’t been to one I’d highly recommend it. The informal sessions are held every other month on each site and colleagues can enjoy a chat over a free breakfast sandwich and a cup of tea with members of the executive team and other senior managers. We have more events happening in January 2020.
February
Weatherman Des Coleman visited staff at QHB to say thank you for saving his life and he later returned to present our Making a Difference Awards, which were held at Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium.
In February, the CQC completed their unannounced inspection of our sites, our first inspection as UHDB. We were ready to show them what makes UHDB special and you did an amazing job showing them the incredible work you do for our patients!
March
We were shortlisted in three categories at the Nursing Times Awards (Nursing Associate Training Programme Provider of the Year, Practice Learning Support Unit, Student Placement of the Year). Whilst we didn’t win, the professional development team really deserved the recognition for their hard work.
I officially opened the new Changing Places facility at QHB. The state-of-the-art facility provides extra equipment and much more space than a standard disabled toilet to help aid people visiting the hospital to use the toilet safely and comfortably. QHB was the first hospital in Staffordshire and Derbyshire to provide this important space, which is something we’re extremely proud of!
In March, the NHS Assembly was created to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan. Members were appointed to share their knowledge, skills and experience and we were delighted that two of our own had been selected, in Penny Owens, Director of Allied Health Professionals, and Professor Andrew ‘Bod’ Goddard, Consultant Gastroenterologist and General Physician.
April
As part of our ‘big conversation’, we had 1,000 face to face conversations, and 8,447 contributions, creating 73,000 pieces of information, which allowed us to develop a clear statement of our Why?, How? and What? In April, this was launched as our Exceptional Care Together statement of our purpose, values and behaviours and the high level things we want to achieve together – our PRIDE ambitions. We firmed up our collective shared aim to make a difference, save lives and give excellent care to everyone who needs it; to show compassion, be open and challenge ourselves to deliver excellent care.
May
In May, we became one of nine Trusts to be awarded the contract for laboratory services to support the delivery of the HPV Primary Screening Pathway. This was fantastic news, as Derbyshire Pathology had done a huge amount of work to become the HPV screening centre for the whole of the East Midlands and just one of seven nationally.
We launched the Making a Difference Awards and have since presented 31 awards to individuals and teams who have directly or indirectly made a difference to the lives of patients, visitors and colleagues.
June
After the inspection earlier on this year, we received an early birthday present, the fantastic news that the CQC had recognised our progress as a merged organisation and issued us with a ‘Good’ rating. We saw huge improvements in a number of key services, including Maternity and End of Life Care, which was rated as ‘Outstanding’ for responsiveness, which was a first for the Trust.
Suzie Hewitt, Emergency Medicine Consultant at RDH, received some well-deserved recognition when she was awarded an MBE for her services to emergency medicine. Suzie treats each and every member of the Emergency Medicine team with respect and has created an environment where everyone can flourish, recognising the unique relationship with patients; she promotes high standards of care for all but especially for the most challenging or vulnerable. Miss Hewitt is a role model for the next generation of doctors, she was the first woman to be appointed as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, and at the time, the youngest ever Consultant appointed at the hospital.
July
We celebrated our first birthday as UHDB in the way we know best, cake! While teams and departments hosted parties, we also saw some more examples of how patients were benefiting from the merger. We were able to offer cardiac care closer to home for patients from South Derbyshire and Staffordshire who required a PCI, commonly referred to as a coronary angioplasty or stent insertion. This had previously been carried out at hospitals in other parts of the region, but these services became available to these patients at the Royal Derby Hospital.
We had more things to celebrate when Dr Sugunendran was named as Diabetes Clinical Champion in the Midlands, and Catherine Johnson, a Consultant Nurse who is part of the Renal Team at the Royal Derby Hospital, was awarded a place on the 70@70 NHS programme.
August
In August, we bid farewell to John Rivers, our Chair for more than 10 years, and welcomed Dr Kathy McLean OBE into the role. She has a long history of supporting healthcare locally and was a Consultant and Medical Director in Derby. More recently, she also held a national role on the Executive Board of NHS Improvement as Medical Director and Chief Operating Officer.
We opened the boardroom at QHB and while renovating the old printing room at The House, developers managed to uncover some of the original features and architecture from the former Workhouse. Here’s some history for you, the House previously also contained the Master’s house and kitchens as part of the Belvedere Road Workhouse, which was opened in 1884 and became the home and workplace of around 550 people in the Burton area. The building was transferred to the NHS in 1948, with Burton District Hospital and then Queen’s Hospital Burton being opened on the site in 1971 and 1995 respectively. We’ve been able to renovate the rest of the building providing much a much better working environment for a wide range of colleagues.
September
In September, we watched with pride as The Big Hospital Experiment was shown on BBC Two. The documentary, which was filmed at Royal Derby Hospital, followed a group of 14 young volunteers, who were trained in taking basic observations and providing patient care. The volunteers were then assigned a clinical team and, under direct supervision, used their newly learnt skills in a clinical environment with patients. I later presented a well-deserved Making a Difference award to Karen Hill, Senior Nurse, for embracing the experiment and helping to make it so successful.
September also saw the first annual Making a Difference awards at the Pirelli Stadium. More than 300 members of #TeamUHDB gathered for a night of celebration hosted by ITV weatherman, Des Coleman. We presented 14 awards to both clinical and non-clinical members of staff from across all five of our sites, before staff dusted off their dancing shoes and took to the dance floor to party the night away.
I had the pleasure of presenting my Chief Executive Award to Hollie Shields, Sister at Samuel Johnson, who is an inspirational leader and encompasses everything that we’re about at UHDB. The Endoscopy team at Sir Robert Peel also won Community Hospital team of the year and it was great to see how surprised they were to be called up on stage – very well deserved!
Sticking with the theme of awards, our Freedom to Speak up Guardian, Alison Bell was shortlisted in the Speak Up category at the HSJ Awards. The focus of the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian role is to act as a main point of contact for any staff member who spots wrongdoing, malpractice, or wants to raise a concern, with this information then being fed back to the Trust Board and then used to improve the quality of care offered to patients.
Encouraging this culture of openness has seen more UHDB staff feel able to come forward and raise concerns confidentially, with the Trust actually seeing a 287% increase in the number of colleagues using the service to speak up, from June 2017-March 2019.
Ward 3 at QHB had a grand opening after a complete refurbishment from a new ceiling to a new nurse’s station.
September was a jam packed month but I also need to mention the AHP wall of fame which was installed at RDH. The wall features real AHP’s and is interactive, with visitors able to read all about our unsung heroes simply by scanning a QR code. Thank you to Nat Matchett, Practice Learning Facilitator, for coming up with the fantastic idea!
October
Our Derbyshire Children’s Hospital Youth Service was recognised with a prestigious national award for their commitment to supporting our young patients. The team of health-based youth workers and volunteers were presented with the ‘Health Team of the Year Award’ by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Well Child Awards.
We shared a story about our Specialist Rehab unit at London Road Community Hospital, which had been officially opened after bringing together 10 specialist services to provide multi-disciplinary support for patients. The facilities are great and many of our patients with complex needs are really benefiting from the improved facilities.
November
UHDB is the lead employer for all Radiology Trainee Registrars in the region, with approximately 90 trainee registrars. In November, we opened the Dispersed Radiology East Midlands, or DREaM Academy, which is a major centre for imaging training.
It’s really important to have a good work-life balance. I enjoy cycling in my free time, while some colleagues enjoy singing in our rock choir every Thursday. IPC Nurse Janice enjoys Taekwondo and in November she won an impressive bronze, silver and gold at the World ITF Taekwondo Championships in Glasgow!
Our Project Search volunteers, who joined the Trust in September, celebrated their first term as interns at Royal Derby Hospital. Project Search is an international programme aimed at helping young people with autism and learning disabilities to transition from education into full-time employment. I learned a startling statistic – only about 3.5% of school leavers with learning difficulties find their way into full-time employment. That can’t be acceptable, so I’m delighted that, together with our partners, we’re hoping to do something positive to address this.
Our Trust has been recognised by NHS Improvement for the work we’re doing to retain our skilled workforce. We were awarded Retention Team of the Year at the Burdett Trust awards.
December
As well as the royal recognition for former stoma nurse Elizabeth Evans, we’re ending the year with more awards thanks to Andrea Booth and the Sustainability team, who won the Transport and Logistics award for their travel plan, which highlights greener ways of commuting to our hospital sites.
Like Kathy and I said in our joint blog on Friday, we still have a tough winter ahead of us, and are expecting a busy few days but we should face the New Year with optimism, as we have lots of things to look forward to.
Next year is the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, and 2020 has been named The Year of the Nurse and Midwife, so we’ll be doing everything we can with nurses, midwives and AHPs to celebrate this landmark.
We have so many things to be proud of, so please take a moment, with your colleagues, to reflect on what you’ve achieved this year and then celebrate the contribution you make to #TeamUHDB. See you in the new decade!
Best wishes,
Gavin