Guest blog from Nicky Tamanis, finance director

Nicky Tamanis

Meeting people and building relationships is essential when you start a new job - but, when you’re working remotely, it’s a completely different experience. 

You won’t bump into people in the corridor, have the half-day orientation to see different teams, or enjoy an impromptu chat over coffee.

I joined Pennine Care as director of finance last September and it’s been a surreal experience to say the least. I was absolutely thrilled to be appointed, but starting a new job in the middle of a global pandemic is not something I had on my bucket list.  Almost as soon as I started, national restrictions were reinstated to manage the second wave, and there I was home-alone staring into a screen all day.

When you’re in the office, conversations happen organically. You’ll naturally talk with people around you, or you’ll ask if they can give you their opinion on work. I’ve always loved that part of the job.

So it’s been a trickier start than pre-pandemic, but it would have been a much lonelier experience if everyone here hadn’t been so thoughtful, helpful and made so much effort to connect. I’m really grateful for that, thank you.

Getting to grips with the complexity of the services which Pennine Care provides across five boroughs has been an interesting challenge. A great example of this is the challenge we face around beds, which was highlighted when I met the patient flow team in Bury.

It’s been a fascinating learning curve, but it’s also felt like a shared experience as we’ve all been impacted by the pandemic and forced to work differently. So in some ways, it’s been a bit of a weird bonding experience!

I’ve learned to stay close remotely, and ring-fenced time to get to know my colleagues and teams on an individual and personal level.  It’s an essential part of building trust and team spirit, especially with the corporate services redesign underway which has brought some uncertainty and understandable anxiety. Although when Lola my German Shepherd is barking in the background it might feel like a less than calm chat!

It’s just frustrating that I’ve not been able to say hello to more of you, but hopefully that time will soon come.

When I have been able to squeeze in a safe visit, it’s been such an enjoyable escape from the house. David Lees, our head of capital projects in estates, has taken me out on site visits; so I’ve been to Tameside where our new psychiatric intensive care unit is being built, the new single gender accommodation in Bury and Rochdale and also Forest House in Oldham where our 24/7 patient helpline service is housed. You’ll know better than me that some of our buildings and areas are in desperate need of a facelift and how much the environment impacts on working lives and the patient experience. So it’s been brilliant to see the improvements first-hand.

This pandemic has also given us new opportunities, with the teams I’m responsible for playing a crucial and pivotal role. I heard someone say the other day that, “there is no back-office” in the NHS. And I couldn’t agree more, as our IT, estates and facilities teams have been hard at work supporting clinical teams on the front-line. The Windows 10 project leading up to Christmas was time critical, so our engineers were going out to wards and other patient areas throughout that time.

We’re now preparing for the PARIS electronic patient record to go live for inpatient and outpatient teams, followed by older adults community services and secondary care psychological services. The system will transform the way clinical teams work and should bring tremendous benefits in terms of safety, efficiency and co-ordinated care.

The old argument about whether it’s right to prioritise modern technology in the NHS is over. The pandemic has proven beyond doubt that better tech is vital for the future success of our NHS services. And we always need to ensure a ‘user-centric’ approach to technology, because at the end of the day this is about improving patient outcomes and your working lives. These are never just IT projects.

So, thank you again for such a warm welcome and your support over these first eight months. I’ve felt the virtual hugs and helping hands and really look forward to meeting even more of you along the ‘road to freedom’.