Thursday 7th April - Leadership message from Marcus Bailey, Chief Operating Officer

On Monday, we were notified by the Care Quality Commission that they would be arriving this week to conduct a core inspection. Since Tuesday, they have visited a range of locations around the Trust and met with various members of staff. I want to say thank you to everyone who has played a part in supporting the inspection, whether that’s been welcoming the team at each location, ensuring they follow the correct security and COVID measures whilst on site, escorting them around the buildings or answering their questions - your assistance has been invaluable.

Inspections matter, because they ensure that the quality of care we’re delivering to our patients is the best it can possibly be. They are an opportunity for us to be open and honest about the work we do, and the circumstances we are working in. There is a lot of good work happening across the Trust, and we have much to be proud of. We also know we have work to do addressing significant challenges, but it’s not a secret, and we should all be confident in sharing that information and demonstrating that we are determined to change.

The local Q&As – your questions answered

Thank you to those of you who attended the first of our local Q&A sessions, and who regularly attend the fortnightly trust-wide briefing. I know there are topics we’re consistently asked about, and that it’s frustrating if we are unable to give a definitive answer to a question at the time. Going forward, I hope that we can use this message to respond to some of those questions in more detail.

Delayed hospital handovers
The answer to this is not simple. We all know that the current situation is very difficult. Waits at hospitals not only impact the care of those patients waiting in the ambulance, but also for you as staff who will finish late and our response time for subsequent patients is prolonged. It affects call handlers, clinicians, and dispatch teams along with leaders involved in managing these challenges.

I know many of you have asked for more information about the conversations we are having with the hospitals around managing the waits and the steps being taken to address this. These can be split in short and long-term actions.

Short term:
Use of cohorting to facilitate end of shift and expanding it to include non EEAST staff.
Passing 999 calls from AOC to 111 colleagues, primary care, mental health, and GPs.
Use of higher surge actions (including no-send and cancel of point of call).
Escalation calls and triggers agreed with each system at a variety of levels.
Trials of focus system triage.
Perfect days in AOC and systems to test what we can do.
Continued dynamic use of incentives.
New private ambulance service tender to increase numbers in areas of greatest need.
Extended HALOs until April.
Trial of consultant connect service related to the frailty phone line.
Conversations around risk involving our executive directors and provider colleagues.

Long term:

Gain agreement for longer term HALO funding.
Continue our recruitment plan, continually reviewing/modifying while we identify a 2–5-year workforce plan.
Further capacity review being undertaken.
Models of care to be developed along with supportive decision-making options - such as validation of all C3-5 prior to dispatch, call before conveyance, HARIS models.
Sharing patient waiting lists to assist other providers ‘pulling’ patients into their care.

There is no doubt that the system continues to be under a phenomenal amount of pressure, but we will continue to do all we can to minimise the impact this has on staff. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes, what we hope is that with a combination of these short and long term measures we can implement a plan that makes things easier for all of us as we move forward, particularly during these busy periods.

Keeping stocked up with LFTs

With COVID-19 infection rates currently so high, it is vitally important that we stick to the new guidelines of testing twice weekly using Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs). As of today [Wednesday 06 April], there are currently 274 active positive cases in EEAST.

NHS workers who are taking part in a staff testing programme are still eligible to order LFTs on the GOV.UK website and we encourage you to use this resource so that you have adequate supplies of the testing kits at home.

While the Trust holds a stock of LFTs, it is obviously more convenient if you have a stock at home in case you start displaying the symptoms of COVID-19. A full list of the current testing requirements was posted on Need to Know last week. If you have any queries, please contact your line manager or Covid lead on 07715 494158 or e-mail EEASTCovidLeads@eastamb.nhs.uk.

Support for Stress

We share a lot of information around wellbeing and mental health, but often the difficult step is deciding to use the resources available to you. April is Stress Awareness Month, and I want to make sure everyone knows there is support available, whenever you need it.

It’s important that the resources we offer in terms of staff support are working for you. Following feedback that the existing Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was not meeting your needs, in terms of poor response times and lack of understanding of the healthcare system, we worked with Kays Medical to employ an alternative EAP provider.

We have a number of support options available for staff, and Mind also has a number of resources available. We are all working in very challenging times, and it is important that we recognise when we may need some additional support. Our new Wellbeing Team is now in place and will be further developing the range of support we can offer to you.

Thank you and take care.

Marcus Bailey
Chief Operating Officer

7th April 2022