December 29, 2017 7.00 am
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Reflections 2017: Andrew Morgan – The importance of community-based care continues to grow
Reflections from the chief executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.
Andrew Morgan, chief executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
By Andrew MorganCEO of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust
It is easy to forget how much you have achieved in a year until you truly take the time to reflect and it is a privilege to be able to do just that in my first column for The Lincolnite.
There has certainly been plenty to write about during 2017. Nationally, we have experienced a general election which focused heavily on NHS provision, terrorist attacks and a global cyber attack, both of which demonstrated the admirable and awe-inspiring ability of NHS services and their partners to respond in an emergency.
Locally, I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of our staff and volunteers at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust who continue to work exceptionally hard to deliver great care.
The people in our teams are our greatest asset and the feedback we receive from our patients and service users continues to make me very proud to be a part of the trust.
They have risen to the challenges we have faced, including the smooth transfer of our 0-19 services to Lincolnshire County Council, taking immediate action regarding fire safety at some of our community hospitals and consultation with our service commissioners regarding the future of Lincoln Walk In Centre.
Our GP Out of Hours Service underwent an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and was rated ‘Good’ overall, while our Finance Team, along with our budget holders, helped to ensure we were able to manage our money well.
We welcomed new nurse associates, among the first in the country, to start training in the newly-created role, and were honoured to sign the Lincolnshire Armed Forces Covenant.
We have been able to showcase innovation and talent by speaking at a number of national conferences. This included Confed17, where we spoke about improvements to our community hospital discharge process to help people get home sooner, and Hospice UK, where we explained how we are working in partnership at the Butterfly Hospice in Boston to deliver excellent care for patients.
We are very proud to be one of a select number of NHS organisations among the approved training providers for apprentices with the Skills Funding Agency and even prouder to say our apprentices are flourishing.
Among them has been Atlanta Marshall, a health care support worker in Spalding, who attended the National NHS Apprenticeship Celebration Awards after being crowned the East Midlands’ area winner.
We were delighted to be shortlisted for a national award for our Clinical Assessment Service, which supports patients over the telephone to get the advice and signposting to the right service following a call to 111.
Our year ahead is set to be equally as challenging and exciting.
Helping people to receive great care close to home is our bread and butter as a provider of NHS community services and it is also a pivotal part of Lincolnshire’s Sustainability and Transformation Partnership. This work is the countywide blueprint for how and why we need to change the way we approach and deliver services to make them sustainable for the future.
Some of the specific details of this are still being determined and will need to be subject to public consultation, but we are able to forge ahead with other projects, such as the development of Neighbourhood Teams.
Neighbourhood teams will see staff from different organisations in a local area working differently together to help those in the local community to stay healthy at home, using services appropriate to their needs while avoiding unnecessary hospital admission.
While this is still in its infancy, we are already seeing very promising and positive changes, which we look forward to showcasing in the coming months.
Finally, I want to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.
New Year’s resolutions
Personal: To continue exploring the county of Lincolnshire, having moved here in 2015.
Professional: To continue to support staff in ensuring their feedback directly shapes the future development of excellent community services.
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Andrew Morgan is the chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and the former CEO of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
It is easy to forget how much you have achieved in a year until you truly take the time to reflect and it is a privilege to be able to do just that in my first column for Lincolnshire Reporter.
There has certainly been plenty to write about during 2017. Nationally, we have experienced a general election which focused heavily on NHS provision, terrorist attacks and a global cyber attack, both of which demonstrated the admirable and awe-inspiring ability of NHS services and their partners to respond in an emergency.
Locally, I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of our staff and volunteers at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust who continue to work exceptionally hard to deliver great care.
The people in our teams are our greatest asset and the feedback we receive from our patients and service users continues to make me very proud to be a part of the trust.
They have risen to the challenges we have faced, including the smooth transfer of our 0-19 services to Lincolnshire County Council, taking immediate action regarding fire safety at some of our community hospitals and consultation with our service commissioners regarding the future of Lincoln Walk In Centre.
Our GP Out of Hours Service underwent an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and was rated ‘Good’ overall, while our Finance Team, along with our budget holders, helped to ensure we were able to manage our money well.
We welcomed new nurse associates, among the first in the country, to start training in the newly-created role, and were honoured to sign the Lincolnshire Armed Forces Covenant.
We have been able to showcase innovation and talent by speaking at a number of national conferences. This included Confed17, where we spoke about improvements to our community hospital discharge process to help people get home sooner, and Hospice UK, where we explained how we are working in partnership at the Butterfly Hospice in Boston to deliver excellent care for patients.
We are very proud to be one of a select number of NHS organisations among the approved training providers for apprentices with the Skills Funding Agency and even prouder to say our apprentices are flourishing.
Among them has been Atlanta Marshall, a health care support worker in Spalding, who attended the National NHS Apprenticeship Celebration Awards after being crowned the East Midlands’ area winner.
We were delighted to be shortlisted for a national award for our Clinical Assessment Service, which supports patients over the telephone to get the advice and signposting to the right service following a call to 111.
Our year ahead is set to be equally as challenging and exciting.
Helping people to receive great care close to home is our bread and butter as a provider of NHS community services and it is also a pivotal part of Lincolnshire’s Sustainability and Transformation Partnership. This work is the countywide blueprint for how and why we need to change the way we approach and deliver services to make them sustainable for the future.
Some of the specific details of this are still being determined and will need to be subject to public consultation, but we are able to forge ahead with other projects, such as the development of Neighbourhood Teams.
Neighbourhood teams will see staff from different organisations in a local area working differently together to help those in the local community to stay healthy at home, using services appropriate to their needs while avoiding unnecessary hospital admission.
While this is still in its infancy, we are already seeing very promising and positive changes, which we look forward to showcasing in the coming months.
Finally, I want to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.
New Year’s resolutions
Personal: To continue exploring the county of Lincolnshire, having moved here in 2015.
Professional: To continue to support staff in ensuring their feedback directly shapes the future development of excellent community services.
Andrew Morgan is the chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and former CEO of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
A pair of anti-vaxxers have decided to temporarily stop sharing conspiracy theories on Facebook and stage a protest at a roundabout in Lincoln instead.
The duo were spotted on the Riseholme roundabout on the A15 on Friday afternoon, armed with misinformation signs that appear to suggest England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has an “evil agenda”.
The protest signs appeared to be against child vaccinations, which suggests that the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation were against young people being jabbed, despite a statement in July saying the Pfizer dose had been authorised for use in people aged 12 and over.
They seem to be at loggerheads with Lincolnshire’s own Jonathan Van-Tam, none other than England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, who urged people this week to “trust professionals, not Instagram” as fake propaganda posted on social media is being attributed to vaccine hesitancy.
Another sign held up spouts rhetoric about heart problems from the COVID-19 vaccine, while a third notice shows children with masks on and reads: “Is this the future we want for our kids?”
For reference, in case you cannot make it to the Lincolnshire Showground for your vaccination, there will be a free shuttle bus service to take you to and from the jab site starting next week. Read more here.
Up to 86% of adults in Lincolnshire are double-jabbed, and over 25% of 12-15-year-olds.
A special lights show celebrating Lincolnshire’s plants will take place at Boultham Park on Saturday.
The Lincspirational Lightshow will start at 5.30pm on October 23 after the original event was postponed earlier this month due to the weather forecast.
The free show is the final of event of Lincolnshire Wildlife Trusts’ LoveLincsPlants project.
The evening will feature a lightshow parade, artwork projects, park illuminations and music inspired by nature from Sinfonia Viva. During the event the 30 artworks created by the public will be projected onto a large screen.
There will also be an opportunity to bid on the 130 artworks submitted as part of the exhibition. They will be available via an online action, with the 30 winning pieces starting at £40.
The evening will feature a lightshow parade, artwork projects, park illuminations, and more. | Photo: Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
The money raised from the sale of the artworks will help fund nature’s recovery in Lincolnshire. It will also help the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust create wildflower rich habitats across the county.
Lincolnshire County Council’s Labour Group will call on the Conservative-led authority to rethink its policy of turning off street lights in built-up areas overnight.
The present situation, introduced in 2016, means that most street lights in Lincolnshire are turned off at midnight, as the council said in March this year that lighting has “no impact” on night-time crime levels.
This statement came after a petition signed by over 5,000 people demanded that street lights were kept on overnight following the death of Sarah Everard in London this year.
The response to Sarah Everard’s death was one of concern for women’s safety, to which the council responded by saying “women’s safety is about much more than street lights.”
A memorial for Sarah Everard in Lincoln on university campus. | Photo: The Lincolnite
More than half of Lincolnshire’s street lights were turned off in 2016 as the council looked to save £1.7 million, and despite the petition and concerns raised, just one parish council asked for lights to be switched back on in 12 months, according to the county’s highways chief.
Now Kev Clarke, Labour County Councillor for Boultham Division in Lincoln and member of Lincolnshire County Council Highways Scrutiny Committee, will be raising the issue at the next meeting on Monday, October 25.
He will be calling for a review of LCC’s street lighting policy, and asking for the council to consider the possibility of keeping the lights on overnight.
Councillor Clarke argues: “After recent sad events – attacks on females – a lot of people feel unsafe and anxious when walking home at night when the county is plunged into darkness at midnight.
“Lincoln is being promoted as a university city with young people leaving home for the first time and moving to Lincoln to study here and gain a first class education. Wonder if the parents were told that lights go off, if so they may look at other locations for their children.
“To boost our local economy we want to attract visitors to Lincoln to visit not only as day–trippers, but to stay over for longer periods to enjoy the benefits of the city and county – one of which is not the turning off of the lights.
“Labour County Councillors are not alone in this plea to Lincolnshire County Council to review the current street lighting policy particularly in Lincoln before it’s too late. Students at the University of Lincoln also want to see changes to the current policy.”
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