Triumphs and Disappointments: I’ve had a few.

Last week was a real mixture of triumphs and disappointments, and at times, a mix of the two. I was well and truly fooled by a picture I saw on social media that appeared to show King Charles standing on the glass floor at the top of Blackpool Tower. I thought what a coup for our town! I felt disappointed when someone told me (J) that it was a waxwork figure borrowed from the nearby Madame Tussauds.

Blackpool was also in the news for other reasons last week. It appears all three of our piers are at risk of collapsing into the sea. The sand on the beach beneath them has been eroded over the years, by as much as 3 metres, leaving the iron legs and foundations dangerously exposed to erosion. Even more worrying is that it is the weight of the sand below that helped keep the piers stable. Sounded like a triumph for the sea and potentially a disappointment for us pier lovers if they get closed. I’m told the pier owners have bought a bulldozer. The aim is to move some of the sand back. I’m not sure it’s a struggle they will win.  

I heard about another struggle that feels like it might be difficult to win. It was a briefing led by Amanda Pritchard, NHS England Chief Executive, on preparing for this year’s Winter period. The briefing was in advance of the official guidance being released late last week. That in itself is a triumph for NHS leaders fed up with reading in the media news about changes to policy, new guidelines and so on before they have been told themselves. I was however, a little disappointed to find the briefing focused primarily on the positive elements - early preparation, joined up working with social care, increases in virtual wards and so on - and didn’t mention how performance over the forthcoming Winter, particularly around urgent and emergency care, would be linked to capital funding allocations in 2023/24. The targets are stretching and the threshold expectations high. I expect it will be a tough few months.

However, I did receive some excellent reassurance that my colleagues are up for the challenge last week. I was able to spend some time with a wonderful group of colleagues responsible for our Transfer of Care Hub. Now I like words and I was interested to find out if the change of name (from discharge to transfer) was something more than just words. It was. Discharging patients from hospital, even if they person is going to receive step down care, or supported care in the community or their own home can sound so final. For many families it can sound like we are abandoning the patient, their loved one.

Talking about a ‘transfer of care’ can lead to more positive and reassuring conversations with the patient and their families. Transfer of care is about continuity of care. It is about a ‘home first’ approach with levels of support and care being provided where this is not immediately possible because of an individual’s needs, and which can continue to be changed until such time as the person is able to return home safely. I was truly impressed with their absolutely effective teamworking approach; an approach that saw folk from different professions, organisations and sectors, all working at putting the patient at the centre of their endeavours. Truly a triumph for innovation, creativity, determination being translated into practice. Many thanks to my colleague Melissa Harrison and her team, for facilitating my visit and helping me better understand this important part of our Trust’s work.

I was also impressed last week when I attended the Stockport Council Fair and Inclusive Summit. On the morning of the summit, there were probably 200+ people gathered together in the magnificent Stockport Town Hall Ballroom. The summit was an opportunity to explore and hear about how the Council were working with partners, many from the voluntary sector, faith groups and social enterprises, to make Stockport a fair and more inclusive place to live, work and thrive. It was brilliant to feel the energy and passion in the room, to hear of the great work different groups, individuals and the Council were doing, often with limited resources. Thank you to Caroline Simpson, Chief Executive, and her team for organising such a great event, and thank you too for the invitation to be part of it.

It is the kind of partnership working that I witnessed at the Summit and in my visit to our Transfer of Care Hub that reassures me that working collectively and collaboratively, we stand a good chance of getting through the Winter and ensuring we are able to continue to provide safe and appropriate care to all who need it.

Finally, I also experienced a different kind of personal triumph and disappointment. I was shopping in Aldi (and why not?), minding my own business and thinking about that evening’s dinner, when I heard someone say, ‘Hello Councillor’.  For those that don’t know, I am a newly elected Blackpool Councillor. Now I was wearing my shorts and t-shirt, and having just completed a walk, my hair was completely windblown (a politer way of saying I looked as if I had been dragged through a hedge backwards). 

So I pretended I hadn’t heard. The voice persisted, ‘Professor, you are a professor’. I turned to find a man sitting on a mobility scooter smiling broadly. He had looked me up, and knew a great deal about my professional life, recognising me from my social media images, he decided to say hello. We had a great conversation, and I think (hope maybe) that neither of us were disappointed by our encounter. The triumph? Simply being an authentic me.