Horse tales and other lessons learnt

My first NHS Non-Executive Director role was at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust. I was blessed with a great Chair and CEO and over the seven years that I worked there, I learned a great deal from both these wise and generous men. Unusually, they both became friends, as well as colleagues. I think some of the most important lessons I learned from my time with them were: to always remain curious, to always consider the impossible when looking at solutions to problems and the importance of being able to communicate with whosoever you met.

 

That was a while ago now, but I continue to benefit from their insight. Sadly, the CEO, Andrew Foster died in March last year. Like many folk, I still miss him. Even when he and I left WWL, we would periodically meet up, have a couple of beers, and put the world to rights. We would meet halfway between his and my house, at a pub situated on the banks of a river. During the summer, you could sit on the terrace and it was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. These days, I still pass the pub on a regular basis and each time I do, those memories make me smile. 

I was reminded of Andrew twice last week. The first occasion was during interviews for our last Board position, Director of Corporate Assurance. The successful candidate also worked at WWL, and we were able to have a bit of a catch up as well. The second occasion followed my reading of the story of Peyo, a therapy horse who works in a palliative care centre in northern France. Amazingly, Peyo ‘tells’ his trainer, Hassen, which patient he wants to visit, by standing outside that patient’s particular door. The horse appears to have the ability to recognise when a person has a tumour or cancer and has a wonderful ability to ‘be with’ people and reduce their pain and anxiety, as they near their end of life.

 

After performing at shows, the 15-year old horse would often seek out the company of people and stay with them. Hassen began to suspect that Peyo had special powers, and after nearly four years of investigation, vets now believe his brain functions in a unique way. Now some readers might be forgiven for thinking that possibly my mind functions in a unique way in making a connection between Peyo the horse and Andrew Foster, the Chief Executive.

 

Once, while I was at WWL we had a 77-year old patient, who was receiving end-of-life care for cancer. She was called Sheila Marsh. Although Wigan is part of Greater Manchester, it is surrounded by some wonderful countryside. Sheila lived in this countryside and had kept show horses for many years. As Sheila neared the end of her life, she told the nurses looking after her that her dying wish would be to see her favourite show horse, Bronwen, one last time. Andrew, his Director of Nursing and the family agreed to try and make this happen.

 

As Sheila’s condition deteriorated, the family arranged for Bronwen to be brought to the hospital. Staff wheeled Sheila’s bed outside and Bronwen walked straight over and started nuzzling Sheila. It was a very moving moment captured on Andrew’s phone. It was a photo that went viral when he posted it on social media. There were lots of tears, but smiles too. Her family said the moment was truly wonderful and had brought comfort to their mum. Sheila was to die just a few hours later.

Across all types of health care, it can be hard sometimes to measure the real outcomes of the care provided to patients, service users, and carers. With Sheila, there was no cure for her cancer. However, I like to think that the care Andrew and his colleagues, and Sheila’s family provided to Sheila eased her passing.

Inevitably, we will all die. For some people, death will be sudden and unexpected. However, for many of us, there may well be time between when we know that we are facing a life-shortening condition and actually dying. It is during this time that planning for a good death is important. Many folk don’t like to talk about dying, and it can be a difficult thing for individuals and their families to get into. Equally, many health care professionals can find it difficult to talk with the people, who are facing the end of their life. 

However, trying to find out what really matters to a person dying is critical if their preferences, wishes, and beliefs are to be met with care. I believe that doing so is as important as is the physical assessment and planning of care to keep people pain free and best able to cope with other physical problems they might experience. As with many aspects of health care, good communication is what will ensure a person’s physical, emotional, and psychological needs are met in a person-centred way. 

The story of Bronwen illustrates to me what might be possible when those lessons of always remaining curious; considering the impossible when finding solutions to problems; and the importance of effective communication with others are foregrounded in the way we think about providing care for others. I thank all those who so generously and freely provided me with so many opportunities to learn. 

A happiness filled blog

This week’s blog was inspired by a simple voice message sent to J from our youngest daughter last week. She had started her message by saying she had ‘just experienced true happiness’ – listening to her message, happiness seemed to stem, in part from her taking delivery of one of those whole-body electric blankets with sleeves. It takes all sorts but if being snuggled down in a warm top to toe wearable electric blanket makes her happy who am I to comment. It did make me think about all those things that bring me happiness too.

For example, I had been really happy with the rather mixed weather we have been enjoying; as has our garden. Then suddenly, we are at the start of October. There was me making the most of the September sunshine and suddenly, we are in October with its shorter days and colder mornings. However, I’m not complaining. Both J and I won on our Premium Bonds this month. As she has just had a massive clear out of her wardrobe’s (yes you read that right more than one wardrobe) she was very pleased to have received her windfall. I’m happy because J is happy. The local charity shop was also happy to receive a van load of her clothes.

I bought another guitar with my prize money – a custom built 3 stringed cigar box guitar, which is ideal for playing slide guitar blues. Billy the parrot is happy as he loves whistling the blues.

More importantly the early days of October also brought and opportunity to have both my flu and covid jabs yesterday. It is always a relief to get them done early. Wearing my public health and health promotion hat, I would urge every reader of this blog and their families to get the jabs done too. The new Covid variant is much more like an intense flu and is laying folk low very quickly. This new variant typically results in a high temperature, a persistent cough, an aching body and a constant headache. If you get it, I guarantee you not going to be feeling very happy.

Thankfully, whilst giving rise to horrible symptoms, this variant is not so deadly as some of the previous one. That said, in the week ending 21^st September 2024 there were a total of 9421 deaths registered across England. This was a ‘quiet’ week for deaths, with there being some 1500 less than was expected.  However, of the 9421 deaths, 1450 were the result of influenza (flu) or pneumonia, and 235 were a result of Covid 19.  So, if you are eligible, get your free jab or if not eligible for a free jab, think about the cost of paying for it as being an investment in your future happiness and wellbeing.

Tuesday gave me the opportunity to both briefly look backwards but more importantly to look at our future as an NHS Trust. It was our NHS Trust Annual Members Meeting and my first one since taking up the Chair role. I love these kinds of events. I’m never happier than when I’m on a stage, and I have been fortunate to have enjoyed performing on many stages in my time. Last week was no exception and the meeting was a fabulous one.

We did the serious stuff of course. We have to. Whilst the AMM is a formal meeting in some respects it is also a great opportunity to share with our members (folk from across our various communities) what we have done, its impact and the difference made. It is also a chance to share where we are heading on our improvement journey. Two of our clinical services gave presentations that illustrated all these features. I was more than happy with how the afternoon went. Feedback from other attendees, tells me many of the people who attended were happy too.    

On the Wednesday I made a presentation to thank our out-going Chief Nurse for her contribution to the Trust and the wider NHS. I think she was both a little sad at retiring, but happy too in terms of what opportunities retirement might bring. I was surprised, and very happy to bump into someone I hadn’t seen for many a year at the event, a chap called Malcom Rae. Many nurse readers of this blog might know the name, if not the person. When I first joined the Trust in 1984, he was the Chief Nurse. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but he generously helped me progress my career, and for that I will always be grateful. He provided a way of helping others that I’ve been happy to emulate every since. I hadn’t seen him since I left the Trust in 1998. Meeting him once more last week gave rise to my own ‘experience of true happiness’.