East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust action plan

The Royal Blackburn Hospital, run by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS tRUST Credit: ITV Granada Reports

STATEMENT FROM EAST LANCASHIRE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST:-

Following the announcement by the Secretary of State today (Thursday 19th September), East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has published its Action Plan outlining improvements that we have made since Keogh Review visit in June. The key actions to date are detailed below:

  • Recruitment

Following the Keogh review we immediately increased the numbers of nurses on the night shifts on our medical wards 2 trained nurses (RGNs) + 2 Health Care Assistants (previously this was 2 RGNs + 1 HCA) We have recruited 30 more trained nurses and 30 HCAs on our medical wards plus 9 additional midwives for maternity services.

  • Balance of demand/capacity between sites

We have opened an additional ward on the Burnley General Hospital site (Ward 16) to balance demand and capacity across our two main sites. Ward 16 is a 20 bedded Medical step-down ward for patients who still need medical and nursing care but are not quite ready to leave hospital to return home

  • Concerns/complaints

All patients or carers who raise concerns or complaints are offered a face to face meeting to discuss their concerns with the clinical team responsible for their care.

  • Share-2-Care Initiative

The Keogh report noted our committed and dedicated staff, and good practice that occurred across the Trust, but also noted that the good practice needs to be more consistent and shared. To help achieve this, we have implemented a number of different initiatives under the banner: Share-2-Care. We have brought together the Nursing and Midwifery forum, and the Clinical Leaders Forum (clinical, divisional, associate, medical directors) who will meet quarterly as the Joint Clinical Leaders Forum (JCLF). This forum will share good practice and learning from complaints, incidents and claims

Secondly, as already occurs in many areas, Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meetings to review issues relating to care that have arisen over the previous week, have been rolled out across all clinical areas.

  • Ambulatory Care/OPAT

Plans for an Outpatient Antibiotic Service and Ambulatory Care (a patient focused service where people coming to the hospital unscheduled can have investigations and exploratory examinations carried out without the need for an overnight stay in hospital) have been approved and will mean that patients will be able to go home from hospital more quickly.

Mark Brearley, Chief Executive at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We welcome today’s announcement by the Secretary of State. We have already put in place a number of key changes outlined above and once in post, we will work with our improvement director and colleagues within our partner trust to meet the challenges going forward.”