We Are EEAST Briefing Thursday 22nd April 2021

 

This week's We Are EEAST Briefing comes from our Interim Chief Executive, Dr Tom Davis. 

I wanted to just give some headlines on people, performance, safety and progress and then take any questions as they come in.

So, today we are sending out some of the results of the Pulse Survey that happened in January. The results mirror the recent feedback through both the CQC harassment survey and the National Staff Survey. As we have already talked about, we have many actions already ongoing and an action plan in place to address these concerns, but it will take time for colleagues and staff to see the differences and report those differences back.

We’re very clear that there is absolute Trust leadership commitment to resolving these issues, but that they will take two to three years to demonstrate the change. Staff do and must therefore continue to speak up and speak out so that we can track that progress and adapt our approach, and as I say, the Trust leadership must continue to be fully committed to resolving these issues.

On another note, with regards to surveys and people, we’ve listened to staff feedback around appraisals, a new appraisal system has been launched and that will help support our feedback. Another survey, but an important survey, is a communications and engagement survey which we’ve asked staff to complete because we know that this is an evolving area and we need to know how improvements can continue to be made.

So, please do go on Need to Know, the pulse survey summaries are available in infographics, the appraisal information is available on Evolve and our short communication survey is on Need to Know also. Please do read the information and keep having your say because without your feedback, the work cannot progress as it should.

So, we know with regards to the pandemic and Covid-19 we’ve seen some government restrictions relax in mid-April and the next step in the road map will be on or after 17^th May depending on the transmission rates. And as you will know when you read the details on the government website, the aim would be that these restrictions would be ended after 21^st June.

As a Trust we are developing plans to make sure that our workplaces remain safe as people return to the workplace, and that the organisation can continue to support a flexible approach to working that we have seen through the pandemic. Please don’t develop local plans because the Trust wide guidance will be available soon and alongside or in complying with the government roadmap, we don’t anticipate any significant changes until on or after 17^th May.

It’s important that alongside this guidance that all our existing Covid protocols are continued and followed so that people remain safe. We’ve talked in the past around Covid secure measures, lateral flow testing and vaccinations. I’m really pleased to say that the second vaccination clinics are going really well, and please do if you haven’t already, look at the information on Evolve and make sure that you have your second vaccine if you have not done so already.

On a patient safety perspective, the latest newsletter is out this week to help us learn and improve as individual clinician, as teams and as an organisation. The bulletin shares recent actions taken to improve our safety for our patients. It explains what to do and what to expect if you are invited to join a round table following an incident, and these roundtables are receiving very positive feedback from staff that have been involved and hopefully will encourage staff to feel part of a just and learning process rather than what has historically been fed back, that staff feel partly that it is a process looking for blame.

Finally, the progress continues with our digital transformation. Again, an infographic is on Need to Know to show you what’s happening with regards to that. We have seen the start of the rollout of our iPads across front line colleagues where we are already seeing benefits to our patients and the ability for us to work more effectively alongside our NHS and other care partner organisations.  

Published 26th April 2021