Video blog Q&A - April 2015

My first video blog (or vlog as they are also known I am told) is now ready for viewing!  

Thank you to the members of staff who sent in questions, I have tried to summarise and answer them in this video, but there were quite a few so there will be another video blog coming soon too.  

It's the first time I have done a video blog and was a bit hesitant about being on camera, but hopefully it helps to answer some of your queries. 

In this Q&A I talk about what the Five Year Forward View means for us at Pennine Care, how we are supporting hospital pressures, why partnership working is so important, what whole person care means to me, integration of community and mental health services and what's the one thing I would like us to focus on as a Trust. 

It's only seven minutes, so not too long.  I would really like to hear your feedback and further questions. This is all part of building our communication and engagement with staff and partners so we can plan together for the future.

Thank you,

Michael 

The importance of the flu jab

Please read this important 'guest' blog from our Medical Director Dr Henry Ticehurst.

As Medical Director for the Trust, I want to reinforce why it is vital for every member of staff to have the flu vaccine.

I had my flu vaccination on October 13. If you haven’t had it yet, this is a message from me to ask you to do so.

The rationale for the vaccination is clear and it has a strong evidence base.

Influenza is a nasty illness and, for normally healthy people, it can confine you to bed for some time. This in itself has massive potential effects on the services we run – we all know it doesn’t take too many colleagues to go off sick before we get in to some real difficulties.  But for those we treat - especially those with long-term conditions, the frail elderly and the young - it can be fatal.

We have a target of 75 per cent staff take-up. This is a national target and, again, it is not an arbitrary target.  It is set to afford our community maximum protection to ensure any spread is contained. So I am asking you to please be one of those 75 per cent.

You have all received details of vaccination sessions in your borough, along with instructions on how to let us know if you receive your vaccinations elsewhere.  

I know you are very busy but I’d urge you to have your flu jab to keep yourself, the people you work with and our service users in the best of health this flu season.

Staff can find more information about the flu campaign, including a list of sessions and a consent form on the intranet here.

So, to summarise, did I have severe side effects? Well, no, because you can’t get flu from the vaccine. A few snuffles, but to be honest I’ve had worse man-flu!

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I hope Henry's note will prompt you to get your flu jab if you haven't yet. If you have, thank you, it really does make a difference. And don't forget if you're like me, with a son with asthma and elderly parents, it protects your family too. 

Thank you et Merci Beaucoup

Since I launched my blog back in April, I'm pleased to say that it has now received more than 5,700 views.  Whether that’s a glance through, a thorough read, received well or otherwise - a big thank you for taking the time to read it.

I hope my posts are helpful, especially for staff to keep in touch with my thoughts and where we are up to with current challenges and developments within the Trust.   

I have had mostly very positive feedback on the blog, from emails, comments posted on the blog, twitter and even a chat by the water cooler.  All feedback is welcome and I hope it encourages discussion within teams.

There has only been one or two negative comments, these are still welcome, we can only lead effectively if we hear the good and the not so good.  

These are challenging times and we are having to make changes, save money and at times make redundancies.  I know this can make it difficult and add pressure at work, I am aware of it and one of our strategic goals is for Pennine Care to be a great place to work.  

But as well as talking about these issues on my blog, I also want to use it as a way of highlighting the good work that I see happening around the Trust every day.  Despite the challenges, we mustn't forget to celebrate success.    

I am still really keen to hear your thoughts about the blog - either post a comment, send me a Tweet or email. 

PARIS  

The use of French within this post is my seamless link to talk about the roll out of PARIS, our new digital care record system.  Given we are going through organisational change, pretty much constantly somewhere in the Trust, I am so impressed with how staff have received the new system. 

Despite busy jobs, service changes and increasing demands, when I have met teams everyone has been committed to making the new system work. I think that’s because everyone knows it will improve patient care and ultimately how we work to deliver care. There have been some challenges, glitches and things we haven’t got right and staff have told me when I have visited. We need to hear when things aren't working so we can fix it and learn from it.

I just wanted to say thank you, or merci beaucoup, to all our staff on implementing the new system and for being so welcoming when I have come out to meet teams as they get to grips with the new system.  It's great to see large paper files being closed and consigned to the archives. The system will improve care, provide a platform for mobile working, but it will also surely save thousands upon thousands as we become a paper-light organisation.

Finally, I was really tickled to hear how the Community Mental Health Team at Sudden Resource Centre had launched PARIS in their service. I understand the office was aromatic with the smell of coffee, staff wore stripy Parisian tops, strings of onions around their necks and no doubt one or two "Allo Allo" style accents here and there (younger staff may want to Google Allo Allo or tune into Gold on your TV!). Well done to the team - I’m on the lookout for photographs of your first day with PARIS!