IHSCM: Your Weekly News, Editorials and Events
BLOWOUT
You can listen to all of Jon’s editorials here.
I hope that you managed to enjoy the bank holiday weekend in some degree, albeit in acknowledgement that the NHS and social care does its work 24/7, 365 days a year. Over the 4 days of Easter Bank Holiday, you probably know the following statistics:-
At least 859,000 people received some type of long-term social care provision each day.
Around 184,000 people attended a major hospital A&E unit with a further 109,000 attending a minor injuries clinic.
Around 6,636 births took place overseen by NHS maternity services.
Around 1.3 million meals were served in the NHS to patients, visitors, and staff.
You’ll each know what you did to contribute and, whatever it was, thank you.
My bank holiday was something of an adventure, culminating in a trailer tyre exploding on the M5 just before the Weston Super Mare junction. One moment we were happily making our way home and the next we were figuring out quite how to continue that progress. Shout out therefore to Tyre West in Weston who combined their efforts to save the day!
It got me thinking – just how well is any of us prepared and ready to react effectively when disaster strikes? A blown-out tyre on the M5 is alarming and inconvenient – but what about if it is something altogether more serious, specifically in your place of work? What would have happened and how well prepared would you have been had the systems and processes that allowed all of you to work in health and social care over the weekend failed?
Recent history suggests that disaster planning and recovery is not necessarily a health and social care strong point. The immediate response to Covid and all that it threatened is currently the subject of a public enquiry and you can expect the outcome judgements to be excoriating of government complacency, lamentable decision making and planning neglect. As to how the NHS and social care providers come out of it, well, I hope that the superhuman effort and commitment that all of you will have been part of to some extents are properly reflected. We shall see.
I well remember the response to the WannaCry cyber-attacks in May 2017 when the entire NHS email system was brought to a standstill. I happened to be at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS trust that morning and recall the whiteboards in reception screaming ‘STOP – DO NOT OPEN YOUR COMPUTER’. I was meeting the then CEO, Andrew Morgan and I remember his calm demeanour when I asked him what he was going to do. “Let my fantastic people figure out what to do and support them to do it” was his excellent answer. He wasn’t one to have a Lever Arch file marked ‘cyber-attack’. Instead, he invested trust in his staff whom he believed to be capable of achieving anything so long as they were given the freedom, resources and encouragement to get on with it.
Next month we expect to launch our new Short Course Masterclass on Disaster Response and Crisis Management, developed by David Bates, Senior Lecturer in Disaster Response and Humanitarian Action at the University of Cumbria and Fellow of the IHSCM. David spent 42 years in the army so you can imagine the type of crises that he has seen and dealt with during his career. Entirely practical, evidence based and, above all, proven effective, the new course will help you to learn how to deal with crisis or disaster and emerge without the need for a public enquiry or, as I required on finally getting home after my M5 blow out, a large glass of Penderyn!
Stay safe, stay strong, and thank you for the brilliant work you are all doing.
Jon Wilks, CEO
IHSCM is proud to present the latest in our Roy Lilley and Niall Dixon Podcast series – The Convert:
What happens when a leading banker groomed in the disciplines and attitudes of the private sector finds himself in charge of the NHS in England? Surely, he will be highly sceptical at least; suspicious and critical at best? But no - the story of Richard Meddings (the outgoing NHS England Chair) is of a Damascene conversion. In this podcast with Niall Dickson and Roy Lilley, Richard reveals himself as an arch defender of the NHS at every level including the achievements of the about to be abolished NHS England.
Upcoming Events
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New CPD Accreditation
We are delighted to let you know that we now have CPD Accreditation on our short course - How to Use Online Marketing for your Business and Recruitment. Upon completion of this course you will now receive a certificate with 4 CPD points.
This course has been developed with Cahoot Marketing
This course is aimed at manger and directors who are looking to better understand how they can use online marketing to increase their business opportunities and improve their recruitment chance and options..
It consists of 3 modules and 3 assignments. The assignments have been designed to be practical tools that you can use to help you along you adapt your business’ online marketing approach.
We Want Your Articles
We are looking for articles around 500 words for our next edition of IHSCM ‘The Loop’ magazine. We want to give you the platform to have your articles published on a wider scale. The topic you write about can be anything to do with your line of expertise and will go out across our website, social media and be shared with our partners.
Articles need to be around 500 words, along with your headshot and any other accompanying images.
If you have any further questions or to submit your articles please email our fabulous Operations Manager Jade jmaloney@ihm.org.uk