Trust Chief Executive Jan Sobieraj. Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter
This month marks one year since the CQC inspected United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) hospitals and six months since the trust was placed into special measures.
According to ULHT, staff have done extensive work to address issues raised by the CQC, and ‘significant progress has been made in improving the quality and safety of care delivered to patients’.
Areas where good progress has been made include:
Introduced a new temporary senior management team at Pilgrim hospital to drive through changes and two new permanent heads of nursing and two general managers have been employed to sustain these changes.
Launched a new voicing your concerns policy for staff, highlighting five ways they can raise concerns.
The “golden hour” protected time scheduled each day, where heads of nursing and matrons set aside the time to do structured checks of the wards to see how the trust is providing care to patients, to ensure that each area of the hospital is providing the same high quality standard of care.
All new health support care workers who join the trust are now automatically enrolled to complete the Care Certificate, which ensures they are all learning the same skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care, as well as opening up the opportunity to go on to study to become a registered nurse in future
Ward accreditation launched in October. Wards will be regularly inspected by a team of independent senior nurses and assessed against a range of 13 quality standards.
Welcomed 80 newly qualified nurses and new consultants to the trust.
Extensive work has been done on improving the trust’s health records, working on a casenote merge and repair, and the rollout of Patient Calling – a digital signage and patient information system in our outpatient departments.
The number of patients waiting over 12 weeks for a first outpatient appointment has halved.
Areas where ULHT are still making progress are:
Investing £2.5 million a month improving the fire safety of the trust’s hospitals which includes over 400 new fire doors.
Supporting our vulnerable patients better through training staff and improving the trust’s policies and practice around safeguarding and mental health. This includes updating policies around self harm, deprivation of liberty (DoLs) and duty of candour.
The trust’s appraisal rates are improving, with 80% of staff having had an appraisal as of September 2017. This compares with just 65% in March 2017.
Over half of our senior managers have successfully completed a two day leadership course on the qualities needed and the expectations of leaders at ULHT. The others are scheduled to complete the course by March 2018.
Chief Executive Jan Sobieraj said: “While it takes time to turnaround the quality and safety of services in a trust our size, we have made big strides over the last year.
“Getting out of clinical and financial special measures isn’t about working harder, but about working differently. Our staff are fantastic and I know that together we can really make ULHT great.
“There is still more to do, and we will strive to maintain progress delivered so far and bring about big change in many other areas.”
Work, which is currently underway, includes:
The trust’s infection prevention team has been re-structured and work has taken place around processes, policies and guidance.. Future work is planned around safe use of sharps and a campaign on hand hygiene.
ULHT is establishing a medical bank, to reduce the trust’s reliance on agency doctors. The trust has also been to a number of recruitment fairs to encourage medical staff to join ULHT, and more work is being done on the Lincolnshire attraction strategy to really push that work forward.
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A local man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and dangerous driving after two pedestrians were injured in a collision with a car and three parked vehicles in Skegness.
Lincolnshire Police officers attended the scene after the collision between a blue Citroen Berlingo, the parked vehicles, and a man and a woman, who are both in their 60s, on Winthorpe Avenue shortly before 7pm on Friday, April 16.
The two pedestrians suffered serious injuries and were taken to hospital. However, their injuries are not thought to be life threatening.
A 63-year-old local man, who was driving the Berlingo, was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and dangerous driving. He has since been released under investigation.
Police are appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage and anyone with information should contact them on 101 or via email at [email protected] quoting incident number 389 of April 16.
Few people attended the second Kill the Bill protest in Lincoln on Saturday, as Extinction Rebellion activists stood alone on the High Street to campaign against a proposed policing bill that could make many protests illegal.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Lincolnshire gathered at Speakers’ Corner to oppose plans for the latest Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which could curtail protesting rights if passed through parliament.
Extinction Rebellion were the main representatives at the protest. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Under the proposed bill, police officers will be given greater powers to put a stop to any protests, as well as determining start and finish times for them, and controlling noise levels.
A few stopped to talk with the protestors, but most just went about their day walking down Lincoln High Street in the first weekend that non-essential shops and beer gardens reopened.
The Lincolnite spoke to one of the rebels at the protest, to find out the reasons behind the march.
They said: “This draconian bill cannot go ahead, it needs to be taken apart and re-evaluted completely.
“People have been walking past us shaking their heads, but they don’t realise that it’s their freedom we are fighting for.”
The Lincolnite photographer Steve Smailes captured some pictures from the protest.
Signs were put up by the works at Speakers’ Corner on Lincoln High Street. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
A 19-year-old man is in hospital with serious injuries after a crash on the A52 on Friday evening.
The single-vehicle crash, involving a white Suzuki Splash, happened in the westbound lane of the A52 between Barrowby and Sedgebrook at around 7.20pm on Friday, April 16.
The driver of the car is now in hospital after suffering serious injuries, and police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Officers believe the driver had travelled from Grantham on the A52 at Barrowby before the crash.
Anyone who has dashcam footage or saw the vehicle before the incident is being asked to call 101, quoting incident 420 of April 16.
Alternatively, you can email [email protected], using the same reference in the subject box.