Thumbs up for hospital Trust
THE trust in charge of Macclesfield Hospital has won an award for its innovative approach to managing seasonal pressures.
The East Cheshire NHS Trust, based in Macclesfield, commandeered staff from its HR, finance and Communications departments to work in the hospital as ‘runners’ as part of its strategy to manage the hectic winter period.
The runners would help serve food and drinks at patient mealtimes, assist with discharges, collect medicines from the pharmacy and escort patients between departments, freeing up medical staff to concentrate on clinical care.
The Trust was recognised for its innovative response and scooped the ‘Changing Culture’ category in the Health Service Journal’s Patient Safety Awards 2018.
Their award submission also included its PALS Outreach Scheme, which sees staff from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service pro-actively go out to Macclesfield Hospital’s wards and departments to check patients are satisfied with their care and immediately address any concerns or queries they may have. Doing this has led wardbased complaints to fall by nearly a third year-on-year.
John Wilbraham, Trust Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to receive this important award, which comes soon after our Care Quality Commission inspection rated our services as ‘Good’. We along with most other NHS trusts faced a very challenging winter last year, with high patient demand and many very poorly elderly patients placing a strain on our services and bed availability.
“However, we were able to mitigate this by training and deploying non-clinical staff who were able to spare some time away from their normal duties. We also saw additional benefits to the initiative including face-to-face relationship- building between clinical and nonclinical staff, and suggestions for improvements thanks to the runners acting as a fresh pair of eyes in clinical areas.
“I am proud of all the staff who have made this initiative such a success and helped achieve he award.”
Executive personal assistant Gareth Rydings is one of the staff members who serves as a runner. Gareth said: “Performing the runner’s role has been a very worthwhile experience. It’s great to be able to help alleviate the pressures the trust can face and being hands-on in the wards and departments it reminds you exactly why we are all here – to care for our patients.”