Stephen Singleton, Chairman of North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC), spent the day shadowing a Band 5 nurse during her 12 hour shift in the acute medical unit at the Cumberland Infirmary.
Mr Singleton joined the nurse on her shift to see issues with patient flow in the trust’s hospitals first-hand.
It was also an opportunity for the chairman to hear suggested improvements from frontline staff about how the flow of patients into the right hospital department could be improved.
The Cumberland Infirmary Hospital in Carlisle. (Image: Newsquest)
Mr Singleton told NCIC directors about his day on the wards at their latest meeting on Wednesday (September 23).
He said: “I had a day, shadowing a Band 5 on a 12 hour shift and as you know, an awful lot of our nurses do their full time as three 12 hours shifts and I’ve long wondered what that must be like, as against your standard five day spreading of the hours.
“So I turned-up at 7am in the morning on one of our wards and shadowed a Band 5 for the whole shift to see what it would be like.”
Mr Singleton said the experience highlighted two key issues relevant to the trust’s current plans.
He said: “One was observing the issues with flow in our hospital, first-hand and noting that, as you would expect, the people on the shopfloor had ideas and the process of getting through the various huddles through the day to the actual actions, brought really to life the issues that we face in terms of flow through the hospital.
“And the second thing, was reinforcing our push towards a continuous improvement model with ideas from the bottom, all I did with this staff nurse through the day was discuss her ideas on how things could be improved and she was brilliant with them as all of you will know when you get to talk to the staff.”
However, he said that the member staff did not know who she could talk to and what she should do with her ideas – which is something that should be changed in the trust.
Mr Singleton served as a GP in his hometown of Kirkbride for 10 years before a successful public health career in Northumberland, as director and then Chief Executive Officer.
He took on the role of chairman at NCIC in May, his role, is to hold the trust’s executives to account on performance and set the strategic direction for the organisation, working with the board of directors.