Staff briefing roundup

Welcome – Rob Gerlis

General update – Peter Wightman

• Vaccinations update
• Workshop with Lay members across ICS – discussing future governance
• West Essex Exec Team now Senior Management Team
• Joint executive team calling Executive Team
• JET team is replaced by Executive Team

Spotlight on…

Planned care/waitlists – outpatients – Grant

• Virtual consultations – pre-COVID there was about 7-12% done via telephone
• Help reducing patient travel and DNA (did not attend) rates
• PAH shifted 70% of their out-patient work non-face-to-face
• PAH are really ahead in this area; the actual target was around 50%, we have maintained around 60%
• 5/6% DNA – dropped right down to less than 3% and now around 3.8% mark
• Workshop in May around outpatients – showcasing and sharing experience
• Tele-dermatology pilot – sharing images to clinical experts and make a diagnosis and triage at that point

Cancer – Christine Moss

• Referral numbers are back up to pre-COVID levels
• Many trusts’ ability to hit cancer targets are very challenged – PAH had a bad month due to a single service but should come back up this month
• BARTs is the only hospital to hit the cancer targets
• New ways of treating cancer pathways – a new method for estimating risks for 2-week waits
• There is a national campaign on lung cancer to help increase the diagnosis rate
• Cytosponge test – test for Barrett’s oesophagus – a condition that can increase a person’s risk of developing oesophageal (food pipe) cancer.
  • It consists of a ‘sponge on a string’ pill and a molecular test. When the pill is swallowed it expands into a small rough-textured sponge in the stomach. The sponge is pulled back up collecting some of the cells lining the food pipe, which are sent off to the lab for analysis.
• Vague symptoms pathway run by Bob Gosh

A short waiver (procurement policy) training – Sarah Beaumont

• Ensuring that all staff members know how and when to use this process.
• View Sarah’s full presentation

Local update – Ian Tompkins

• If staff need to leave their homes to go out to work at a different location, they may need to complete a Lateral Flow Test. We have a supply of these at Spencer Close. Please contacts Jackie Hall if you need some Lateral Flow Tests
• We’d like your feedback on how we work in the future. We’ll be sharing a short survey in the coming days – please do complete it and send it back to us. This will help us work out how people come back to the office when the time comes.

Tanya Dewsnap – van der Merwe – Appraisals

• If you have the capacity to do your appraisals with your team, please do so
• If staff are not performing, appraisals are not the time to do it – this should be discussed in regular one to ones
• West Essex have the best compliance on appraisals
• Please complete appraisals you have to, but do it because you want to help your team members
• There is a new form educating you through paid progression
• It is important to get used to the expectation going forward
• Any issues please contact Tanya – there will also be appraisal training available