Making a difference

Andy here,

Those that have been reading 'Fluff's Journey' might recall the issues we had around Julie's discharge & me 'demanding a meeting' with the CEO of Arrowe Park Hospital Well it happened and included senior level external agencies including a director from the Clinical Commissioning Group and The Director of Nursing for APH Jill Galvani, the meeting was an incredible success and it's bringing changes to discharges. The team asked would Julie & I video a summary of events so that the video can be used to train staff, to also understand the patient & family experience, we were more than happy to assist. here is the video, excuse my fifteen chins. It seems due to a technical issue there are sound problems when played on mobile phones, it's all good on a tablet, PC or laptop. Check it out. http://youtu.be/J3JEtqhWvP8 - The moral to the story is don't just whine about poor experiences in life be it retail or health, put together a calm and rational overview of events & try to change them, you'll be surprised what you can achieve.

I'd like to personally thank Arrowe Park Hospital's Director of Nursing, Jill Galvani for facilitating the meeting so that I had the opportunity to present to not just CEO David Allison & Jill but a full team of Key 'Stakeholders' including Macmillan Nurses and  all committed to and are already delivering positive change following this meeting. What was Key to me too was it's easy for any large organisation to 'listen' to a complaint but then just move on with business as usual. APH  like any hospital cannot please everyone all of the time but complaints make better headlines than praise. What truly impressed was bringing in to the meeting a lady called Lorna Quigley,  who is Director of Quality & Patient Safety for Wirral CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group)  Most of us do not understand the hierarchy of how the NHS works, we just expect it to but the government does not just hand out wads of money to hospitals they and other departments are paid for the services they supply. Lorna’s current role at the CCG involves monitoring the quality of services that are commissioned by the CCG against agreed standards, responsibility as Executive Lead for Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults and is also the lead for infection, prevention and control. Lorna was clear that her attendance at the meeting was to understand what my concerns were and to understand what the CCG were getting for their money, also to ensure effectively that everyone upped their game afterwards. The inclusion of the CCG to me says APH's team is progressive in terms of accepting and recognising when things aren't right and doesn't 'sweep the issues under the carpet' in fact the exact opposite in our case, they have been keen to embrace significant change for patients and I believe for the NHS in turn this improves staff moral, it gives us the patients a better experience AND the proposals put forward will deliver significant financial savings and improve efficiency. The video doesn't include the full detail of my presentation (that was an hour long - the video is 'just' 15 minutes) to this key group but suffice to say I came away knowing changes would be made and that Julie's battle with fluff hasn't been in vain, so confident are the teams involved that they will succeed I have been invited back to check on progress in September and also beyond that. My wife's story is inspiring this is just another example of how she has selflessly helped others on their journeys.