One of my most recent service visits has been truly profound, and not in a way any of us could have imagined.A couple of weeks ago, I spent time visiting several mental health services in Oldham, which included our Cedars Assessment Ward for dementia patients at Oldham Hospital.
As I witnessed the skill, commitment and compassion on Cedars Ward and in all the mental health services in Oldham, I thought about how incredibly close a team must become working side-by-side day after day; sharing care, ideas and experiences.
I was so impressed and impacted by the team spirit and camaraderie I saw in the services there, and so just a few days later, I was heart-broken to hear that Saima Riaz, a nurse on Cedars ward for 10 years, tragically died over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
We were all so shocked and upset with the news, and devastated for Saima's family, friends and colleagues. Our hearts and thoughts are with everyone that has been impacted by this and I hope you are getting all the support you need.
The Cedars Ward staff have described Saima as "a great nurse who was full of life, knew how to make people laugh and lifted people's spirits". They are putting a book of memories, tributes and photos together for her family, and if you would like to contribute the details will be on our intranet and in Connected, our weekly email update.
It puts everything into perspective, but I do want to touch on some other things in this blog.
We're approaching a significant couple of months as we prepare for the transfer of our community staff in Bury, Oldham and Rochdale to the Northern Care Alliance on 1 July. This will be the single biggest TUPE, with staff in Trafford, dental, child health information and Rochdale children community services then transferring to providers at later dates.
Alongside this, we're finalising work on our new values and progressing our strategic plan, with more workshops and events this month to ensure everyone can contribute. Please keep coming to these events and feeding in your views; we can’t do this without you.
The timescales for everything are tight, the milestones are momentous, the challenges are complex and the details are complicated. So, basically no mean feat and I know there’s an immense amount of work going on and pockets of real pressure. I am so grateful for everyone’s hard work and keeping going despite the uncertainty and sheer volume of work.
Again, I hope you are all getting the information and support you need, looking out for each other and looking after yourselves.
I said in a previous blog that I was planning to drop in and see our corporate teams, just to see how you are doing. I know we all work in the same building, but I'm very aware we rarely get to see each other (maybe we need to knock down some walls!?). I have arranged to drop in on a couple of corporate team meetings and although I haven’t yet managed to do a walk around, I am still intending to do this as soon as possible.
Again, I hope you are all getting the information and support you need, looking out for each other and looking after yourselves.
I said in a previous blog that I was planning to drop in and see our corporate teams, just to see how you are doing. I know we all work in the same building, but I'm very aware we rarely get to see each other (maybe we need to knock down some walls!?). I have arranged to drop in on a couple of corporate team meetings and although I haven’t yet managed to do a walk around, I am still intending to do this as soon as possible.
I just want to end this blog with name-checking some important campaigns and awareness weeks…
A powerful and poignant Shining a Light on Suicide campaign has launched this week in Greater Manchester, which we have been involved in. It aims to take the subject out of the dark by getting people to talk openly about suicide. It’s the biggest killer of men under 49 in our region.
I don’t know whether any of you have been watching Celebrity SAS (where a bunch of TV personalities and former athletes are being put through the brutal entry assessment for the SAS as part of the Stand-up to Cancer charity), but I’ve been fascinated watching this from the comfort of my settee. It’s clear just what physical and mental stress this sort of assessment puts people under, but also the long-standing emotional issues that surface within people’s lives.
In a recent episode, former footballer Wayne Bridge broke down talking about the things that had impacted on his confidence and how hard finding purpose has been for him after his footballing career ended. What struck me the most, was the heart-warming scene with a couple of his fellow male competitors hugging and comforting him as he cried; and just how compassionate and supportive they were in their response.
We’ve also got Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week coming up and International Nurse’s Day on 12 May. Look out for information about all of these and help us raise awareness and celebrate via social media. I will no doubt say more about both of these in a future blog.
Finally, I hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend (despite a lot less sunshine predicted for this one). Thank you to those who are looking after patients over this time, and I hope you also get some time to relax.
Best wishes,
Claire
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