Weeknotes s01e35
TL;DR: Getting a flu jab and KGH Employee Excellence awards.
[week ending 04/10/2019]
Monday — Quick catch up with Exec colleagues sharing our week ahead, then into the Trust board meeting which started with a demo of the electronic observations that we’ll be going live with later this month. The demo didn’t quite go as I’d hoped, so looking to show colleagues the system in other ways over the next few weeks. We then saw an incredibly moving video about Ned, who sadly died as a result of the flu virus and rare complication related to it. We then had the privilege of meeting Nikki and Dan, and Gus, Ned’s twin, who were keen to use their devastating situation to encourage everyone that there is no reason why you shouldn’t have a vaccination if you are able to have one. They are heroically supporting the campaign for getting more people to get the jab this year.
The Board continued with key discussions about the move to SPC reporting and the first draft of a revised board report using this method, an update on the EPR programme, the annual mortality review, the medical revalidation and freedom to speak up. At lunchtime we kicked off the Trust’s flu jab campaign by the Board getting vaccinations. At the same time, 20 information analysts from across the county were in a NHSI training session, learning more about developing SPC using SQL. One final meeting after board, then two of us braved the rain and went on the third Exec team bike ride. Turns out that the reproofing I paid to for my “best” cycling coat earlier this year was purely theoretical exercise.
Tuesday -Started with a 1–2–1 with one of my team. Then a meeting about an incident, which delayed me joining the EPR Ops Group. Just managed to join for the discussion about the Theatres go live and the lessons to be learned from quite a bumpy week. Left early from that meeting to join our weekly Exec team meeting where we discussed the week ahead and some exciting new for the Trust. We then headed off for the Executive Group Meeting Time out off site. Colleagues from the three clinical divisions gave some feedback on the work they’re doing to support the Trust’s strategy. The agenda went out the window due to the all the good stuff that is going on. There were a lot of really positive things happening at a ward/division level that is not visible to other areas. We need to explore a simple way for teams to share their good work within the Trust. The NHS Academy of FAB stuff is one potential – or a public-facing Wiki. I’d rather it wasn’t just internal as we miss a trick to be as open as possible in our sharing.
Wednesday — Had a catch up call about the information development project. We have some strategy development workshops later in the week, so we talked through some of the practicalities and my love of post-its. Then joined a call about our inventory management project which is moving on nicely. I now need to arrange a visit to see it in action. Managed to tick off some other things on today’s list which includes reviewing some EPR Project Manager CVs, preparing for a supplier meeting tomorrow, putting together some thoughts for an ongoing incident.
Thursday — Did a call with one of our suppliers -worked through a few items where we can make more of the software we already have. Then a catch up with one of the EPR team. Had a couple of meetings cancelled in the morning which allowed me to progress on a few other things on my plate and also created space for a couple of people to drop by, one who asked me to mentor them. I’m a massive advocate for coaching and mentoring, so was keen to try and help. We had a discussion about how that might work and what they’re looking to get out of that arrangement. We will give it a go and review in a couple of months. In their afternoon joined one of our Challenge meetings, where we review all the things we’ve agreed to do. There are a number of Carter recommendations relating to Information and ICT that I updated on. Then an incident management meeting, followed by a meeting with a potential supplier. Then in the evening it was the Employee Excellence Awards 2019. I’ve been to some lame presentation events in previous organisations, and was wondering what to expect. This was an absolutely fantastic evening, celebrating the brilliant achievements of those who had been nominated but their peers. The evening kicked off with a short performance from The Timewarpers who are the KGH panto performers, and I just about managed to dredge the moves for the Timewarp from the past. The Exec team presented some of the awards and I had the privilege of acknowledging the nominees for the Non-Clinical Employee of the year. The winner was Charles, who exemplifies the Trust’s CARE values every day. It was great to see so many people being given their 25 years long service award. I was also delighted to meet someone who’d worked in the Trust for nearly 47 years! Roll on the 50 year service award Wendy!
Friday — Two workshops to progress creation of our new Information strategy. Some really good engagement and some good ideas for the future captured.
Interesting Stuff read:
- CIOs are board level influencers. This report claims that the number of CIOs on company boards is on the decline. Which is contrary to the movement of NHS Trust boards.
- Nursing Workforce Planning – are we just playing a numbers game by Annie Cooper.
- Insights from GP Appointment Data. In the days as Programme Director for the NHS App, we spent a lot of time looking at the GP appointment data, but never in a form such as this, and certainly not supported by this kind of insight. Interested to see that DNA rates seem to be proportional to the length of time to an appointment. There is a suggestion this is a causal relationship, but this conclusion is in contrast to the MRI DNA paper I read the other week that suggested 81 factors relating to the non attendance.
- Interview with Toby Avery CDIO “a lot of IT departments don’t have credibility, a lot of IT departments are seen as a back-office systems where no one ever compliments or thanks them but they do shout out when it all goes wrong”
- Excavating AI The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets. Fascinating article on the inherent bias in image learning sets.
- The “Strategist” Leader — Transforming Business and the Future of our World by Helen Munroe. Different leadership models leading to the Alchemist as the pinnacle of leadership characteristics. I find myself rejecting this sort of pigeonholing on principle.
- Interview with CEO of Kingston Council, my friend Ian Thomas. Not listened to all of this, but logging here to come back to it.
Books finished this week:
- Fiction: None.
- Non-Fiction: None.
Currently Reading:
- Non-Fiction: Why CEOs Fail.
- Non-Fiction: Creating a culture of invitation in your church by Michael Harvey.
- Fiction: Munich by Robert Harris. Reading this at book club on Monday, so got to get it done this weekend!
- Fiction: Chocolat by Joanne Harris.
