Here - Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

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Interview regard to challenges I don’t see the geography as such a problem as the clinicians on the ground, because I have worked in a multinational organisation with places in different countries and actually this Trust is not that big in the terms of geographical spread, although admittedly it is not like a hospital in that we are not all on one site. For the clinicians on the ground I think it is about really working at our IT infrastructure better and realising that we do not all have to be in one place. If you can get the IT infrastructure connected then the organisation will feel more connected in a different way, rather than in the traditional way of all being in one hospital. The IT strategy includes a Blackberry pilot which is now beginning to take off and one very basic, simple thing that Mandy Stevens, Director of Quality Performance, has (she comes from the Priory, which has sites across the country) is doing telephone conferencing”. Q. I suppose the other issue is having sufficient funding and resources there for rolling out the Blackberries, and other more financially draining aspects of communications? “They are actually reasonably easy to deliver; we just need to make sure we are managing it at a decent pace, because we do have a lot of people (not least myself) who are not over confident with technology!” Q. That leads on to discussing money and other opportunities. If money was no object, as a hypothetical question, what other services would you like to bring in? “Well I would object to that question because that is not the real world. I think as an organisation we have to help people understand that limited resources and service development go hand in hand. My particular interest is around having a much greater focus on wellbeing. I am very interested in the nature of the Surrey population and why Surrey has such a high usage of general hospitals acute care, when it is technically supposed to be one of the healthiest, wealthiest counties in the nation. I think we have some fantastic opportunities as a Mental Health and Learning Disability Trust to move away from looking at individual specialties and to try to use the expertise we have in our clinicians to start answering those questions for a bigger population. I think that getting people to understand and think of the connection between mental and physical health, in the way Services are commissioned, is a real challenge”. Q. There have been some difficult decisions recently that have had to be made across the Trust regarding bed closures and reconfiguration. Do you think there are any particular lessons that came out of that? “I think one of the lessons is that there has been no reduction in the number of people that are being seen and the reason we have been able to close beds is because the system in the community is up and running well. Admittedly there has been some discontent around it, but not as much as there may have been elsewhere. The readiness of people to work with it and try it out is a phenomenal testimony to the sound clinical practice and teamwork in those systems. The best way to manage such issues is to have a strong multidisciplinary team locally, with strong confident clinicians, who are able to work collaboratively. My job is to make sure we have the right people in the senior leadership positions and the competence, confidence and climate so that people have the challenge and discussion before, rather than after, the event”. 30 Surrey and Borders Online Journal www.sabp.nhs.uk/journal
Q. Very topical to that is the appointment of a new Medical Director of the Trust. How do you view the role of medical director? I understand that there has been some discussion of the role changing in some respects. How do you envisage that role and how will you ensure you seek out and engage the right person? “I view the Medical Director as being the clinical leader of the organisation. What I really want to see is someone who brings a vision for the clinical tasks of the Trust overall and pulling the whole thing together. This is someone who can talk to all clinicians, not just doctors, who can understand where everyone is at and someone who is excited by the thought of taking the leadership, rather than doing it out of evil necessity”. Q. How do view the role of medics and clinicians within the Trust? How do you feel they should be working with management to get a collaborative approach? “I think they should be part of the management team, not see themselves as separate from it. They should be confident leaders. I would like to see a little bit more pressure from the clinicians in the organisation, a bit more testing and more questioning and confidence in admitting what they don’t know, and what they need in help in understanding about how a foundation trust and the finances work. I do see some really good examples where clinicians are very clear on their ambition for theirs services, for example a liaison service in one part of the Trust got up and running from the vision of the medical lead”. Q. Do you have any final comments that you would like to make? “The other area that I am really interested in for this organisation, going back to your question about what I get excited about, is research and education. I think we have more opportunities emerging in the sense of research for patient benefit. It is something we could build our reputation around in partnership with the service user community and also with the universities”. Q. That was one of the areas that the Care Quality Commission mentioned as lacking on their recent visit to the Trust so it is an important area. So again that is something quite important. “I wasn’t aware of that specific issue so much, but it doesn’t surprise me. What we are doing with the role of the Medical Director and the fact that we want to elevate the research and development directorate function, to have it more closely overseen by the Board, dovetails with seeking to address that concern. I am very clear as Chief Executive that we need to get it right, for the kind of organisation we are, but also pay much more strategic attention to it”. Interview Surrey and Borders Online Journal www.sabp.nhs.uk/journal 31
Page 1 and 2: Issue 1 Summer 2010 Surrey and Bord
Page 3 and 4: Do you ever wonder why you agree to
Page 5 and 6: We are not so aware of the hidden f
Page 7 and 8: esorting too soon to complex statis
Page 9 and 10: Bipolar Disorder: how effective is
Page 11 and 12: Research Method The study was condu
Page 13 and 14: Screened for Hypomania Yes No Total
Page 15 and 16: In our sample the GPs screening met
Page 17 and 18: Audit of risk assessment documentat
Page 19 and 20: Fig. 2 Re-audit May 2009 - distribu
Page 21 and 22: An evolving service - results of a
Page 23 and 24: having clinical responsibility for
Page 25 and 26: school exposure to psychiatry as an
Page 27 and 28: The measures outlined above will ho
Page 29: Interview with Fiona Edwards, Chief

Here - Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

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