Thursday 16 March: Executive message from Melissa Dowdeswell, Interim Chief Operating Officer and Director of Nursing, Safety and Quality

Dispatches

Last week Channel 4 broadcast a Dispatches documentary about the NHS, centring on EEAST and Watford General Hospital. In last week’s message we highlighted the fact that the programme featured covert filming which was carried out by an apprentice EMT who was based at Watford Ambulance Station and has now resigned from the service.

This has not been easy, to learn about or to watch, and I know for many of you based at Watford it has been an incredibly difficult couple of weeks. Please remember, if you need help or support to cope with any of this, whether you were directly impacted by the filming or feel affected having watched it, then please speak to your line manager, our FTSU Guardian, or access the support of our Wellbeing Hub.

This type of filming is a huge breach of confidentiality and, in some cases, might lead to disciplinary action and even prosecution. Our Social Media and Digital Policy is in place, to ensure that we are all clear about our guidelines, expectations and the potential consequences if the policy is breached.

Industrial action update

The next planned date of industrial action is on Monday 20^th March. Discussions between the healthcare unions and the Government are progressing, but as yet there is no resolution. We must continue to plan for further industrial action to be taken next week.

We fully support colleagues choosing to strike but must also focus on the care of our patients and because of this we must plan to cease all non-essential work.

Thanks to all of you who have already signed up to offer support and have committed to learning new skills, such as call handling, in order to provide additional resilience for the organisation. I am sure you may feel anxious about taking on a new role or working outside of your comfort zone in this way, but let me assure you that we have extensive support in place. We have clear policies and procedures, and the local management teams are very clear around what the expectations of you will be. We are extremely grateful that you have volunteered and will be doing all we can to make sure you have the resources and support that you need in order to fulfil the roles.

We continue to need further support including:

A manager for each of three military deployment hubs across the region.
Local teams to help run ambulance stations on the day
Drivers for staff welfare vehicles at our acute hospitals
Support the EOC via call taking
Clinical volunteers to work with military colleagues during industrial action (clinical colleagues please speak to their local teams initially).

As set out last week we are still short of call handlers. Anyone who is willing and free to do this vital role please contact Kelly Anne Applegate, EOC Training and Education Manager for more details. You will have the support of the Executive Leadership Team if you want to undertake call handler training - or indeed any other business continuity training – so that you can be relieved from your normal role.

We’re also continuing to look for drivers with a C1 ambulance licence to help move ambulances the evening before the planned industrial action (Sunday 19th March) and then again on Tuesday 21^st March, as well as clinically trained people to provide contingency ambulances.

If you think you can help, please email eeast-ia-returns@eastamb.onmicrosoft.com

Strengthening our leadership

We know from the staff survey and other sources that having good managers and leaders across the trust is vital to making sure that all our people get the opportunities and support that they need. On 23^rd and 27^th March we are bringing together all our managers and leaders across the trust over 2 leadership days. The aim of these events is to explore how we make EEAST a great place to work; why developing themselves and their teams is important and how we can best build on the results of the most recent staff survey.

There will also be an opportunity to showcase achievements and successes in each sector as well as a Q&A with the Executive Team.

Sign language week

At this week’s public board we heard a really powerful story of the lived experience of a patient who recently used our service and is deaf. The video is available to view here, and I would encourage you all to take a few minutes to watch it.

I was really interested to learn that British Sign Language (BSL) is the preferred language of over 151,000 people in the UK. This week is Sign Language Week and over the last seven days we have been sharing information on our social media channels about BSL and Relay UK, a service that allows our patients who are deaf or hard of hearing to text rather than call us if they need medical assistance. We will also hear from one of our own colleagues as she shares her own experience of wearing hearing aids, so please do take the time to have a look at the posts when they appear.

Thank you Thursday

This week’s Thank You comes from a patient in North Essex.

‘I got in touch via patient survey to thank my driver. He could not do enough, great man.’

Thank you for your continuing support.

Melissa Dowdeswell
Interim Chief Operating Office and Director of Nursing, Safety and Quality

Published 16th March 2023