Welcome to the October issue of The Triangle

The issue of patients, their families and staff raising concerns about treatment, conditions and culture within the health service has been under the spotlight recently following prominent media stories about the Lucy Letby case, the introduction of Martha’s Rule and the findings of a recent shocking report highlighting sexual harassment of female surgeons. It is really important that we take time to reflect and learn and ask ourselves could this happen in our services in BSW?

These are challenging and important issues and, as such, we took time at our recent Board meeting to discuss them and also to remind ourselves of our organisational core values which drive us to always be caring, innovative, inclusive, accountable and collaborative in everything we do.

These values are incredibly important to us and are central to creating a culture in all of our organisations where both staff and patients can freely raise concerns if they feel something is not the way it should be and be confident that their voices will be heard.

Listening to feedback and providing channels through which concerns can be raised is important to all of our partners and we would like to take the opportunity to flag the excellent Patient Advice and Liaison services (PALs) that are available across BSW, along with the important role played by our three local Healthwatch organisations in collecting and reporting patient experiences and the Patient Participation Groups provided through local GP services.

All of these services give patients and members of the public a voice and we would encourage everyone to use these channels if they have any concerns. You can find details of all of these channels on our website at www.bsw.icb.nhs.uk

These issues of openness, transparency and a culture that encourages colleagues to speak out are also covered in a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Improvement Plan, which has been approved by our Board and is covered in a story in this issue of The Triangle.

Elsewhere this month, we are pleased to report that work on our Integrated Community Based Care (ICBC) programme has taken a very positive step forward after our Board members approved our Primary and Community Care Delivery Plan.

This plan provides a real transformational framework for the future and is central to the way we will develop our health and care services, out of hospital, closer to home and in the community. It outlines how we aim to increase our focus on prevention and early intervention, improve outcomes for everyone while providing excellent health and care services for all of our communities.  You can also read more about this important document in this issue of The Triangle.

Thank you once again for taking the time to read our newsletter and, as always, please let us know what you think about the stories included and issues raised by emailing bswicb.partnership@nhs.net.