ย ย 
ย ย ย 
๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ง๐ต๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ง๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ถ๐ป’๐ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐
Day three of my five days of workshops and I am in Essex with a national provider of patient transport services, supporting their senior leadership team to better understand how to work towards ‘Outstanding’ in the Well Led domain.
Having worked with them last week on the new Single Assessment Framework, I learned a lot about just how vital this service is – the work they do helping people access and move between services is an essential cog in the huge health and social care machine. Therefore, my theme for today is ‘Partnership Working’.
In 2013, the ground shaking Francis Report highlighted numerous themes from the enquiry into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust and one of those things that Francis reported was central in making patient outcomes and experiences so poor was “๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ง๐ง ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐จ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด”.
In my travels across the country looking at and supporting a wide variety of services, silo working or working with an inward looking focus is something I still see, and the providers are often shocked when we map out the huge impact and direct correlation this can have on poor clinical outcomes and poor patient experiences. Our regulatory framework has traditionally conditioned us towards having a laser like focus on our own processes and performances, with little or no emphasis on the importance of services working together to try and provide a seamless care to the person at the centre of everything that we do โ the patient.
What the new Single Assessment Framework offers providers now is the opportunity to realign their governance processes and re-evaluate their priorities and relationships. The new patient focused Quality Standards really highlight this:
โ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ด๐ข๐ง๐ฆ ๐ด๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ด๐ข๐ง๐ฆ๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ.โ
โ๐๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต.โ
Patient Transport services are the perfect example of how partnership working can ensure not only a better patient experience when people are โaccessing, using and moving between servicesโ (a direct line from the CQCโs new strategy), but can also have a positive impact on clinical outcomes, staff stress levels and their wellbeing, as well as pressures on acute services.
Working with this provider and hearing some of the wonderful stories from their amazing teams, really gives me hope that with a bit of realignment on how we focus our priorities, our wider Health and Social Care sector can not only weather this period of uncertainty, but come through it with a renewed passion and dedication to positive patient outcomes and experiences.