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Prevention, workforce and technology
You may have seen recently that we hosted the Rt Hon Matthew Hancock MP when he conducted his first official speech in his new role as Health and Social Care Secretary.
The Secretary of State knows the West Suffolk well, given he’s one of our local MPs, but it was a great privilege for us that he chose “his local hospital” to deliver such an important speech.
I’ve been reflecting on his early priorities: prevention, workforce, and technology, and what it means for our local health and social care system, and particularly our community services.
Since October last year community teams have been part of WSFT, helping us to become a fully integrated health and care provider. They and our allied health professionals are at the forefront of innovation in terms of the care we provide our patients to aid prevention. Examples include our early intervention team, a ‘one stop shop’ to help people retain their independence and avoid hospital admission; and our community cardiac rehab team, which offers a supportive programme of health education and exercise that empowers people to take some control over their heart disease and to live healthy lives.
We’ve been bringing acute and community services closer together and working more collaboratively with our social care colleagues and other partners in the health and social care system as part of a ‘West Suffolk Alliance’. This is to ensure we deliver joined-up care that’s centred on individuals’ needs and goals, is closer to home, and helps people to stay well and manage their health and wellbeing. Our public health consultant is working with staff and GPs to design services to meet the demographics and specific clinical needs of the local population.
Changing the way we work together to make effective use of our resources so that health and social care locally is sustainable for the future is vital.
When discussing NHS staff Matthew said seeing how many feel “undervalued” is “heart breaking”. I’ve said many times that our staff are our most important resource so I’m pleased he said he will “fight for” and “champion” staff across the sector. Although we’re top in the country for staff recommending us as a place to work or receive care, there are still lessons to learn. I spend time meeting staff, shadowing them to understand issues and see what they do. This summer and beyond, along with other WSFT execs, I’m out and about meeting community teams across west Suffolk. If we’re going to transform services and the way we work, we need staff to tell us what obstacles exist and how services can be improved; and to empower them to make changes that benefit patients.
The former Culture Secretary announced £487m will be spent on improving NHS technology and reducing staff workload. We welcome that investment. We’re one of a small number of ‘digital exemplar’ trusts and over the past two years we have been making great strides in advancing tech and digital initiatives that make improvements for patients and staff alike.
We know we have some work to do with our community IT systems; we’ve recently invested in this area and are exploring the potential use of mobile Apps to enable community clinicians to be better connected to hospital teams wherever they are. Our long-term aim is to integrate our systems with other care providers in the county, like we have recently with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We can now link our electronic patient record systems (EPR), meaning clinicians are now able to easily and securely access clinical information on a patient that is held within the other trust’s EPR.
Sometimes it feels like we have a mountain to climb but prevention, workforce and technology are major areas that will impact on how successfully our outstanding Trust can help build a sustainable local health and social care system that really works together to improve patient safety and outcomes. I’m excited about what more we can achieve.
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