This year I've taken on to try and change our broadband and phone supplier this week too. They have put their prices up so we have an opportunity to cancel the long-term contract without penalty. We have had problems with the super fast technology and crackly phone over the last six months. It isn't the provider's fault, engineers from BT have described the state of the wiring in the box at the bottom of the road as dreadful and the repeated issues track back to there.
But, each time I have rung to report a fault or that a repair hasn't worked, I'm faced with the same message "We're sorry, but we have an unexpectedly high level of customer calls today and the time to speak to a consultant will be around 30 minutes". The actual 30 minute wait could be up to 50 minutes, meaning that calls could be over an hour... and I've probably made 8 of those over the last few months.
The bit that really annoys me is the message; if on a given day calls peak unexpectedly, then I could understand, but seeking to blame me, the customer, because there simply aren't enough staff on duty to deal with calls on every time I've called is hugely frustrating and has definitely contributed to the slightly more angst ridden interactions with the company than I might usually try and exhibit.
So their time has come, but is that really the top priority for this week.......?
Highlights of the Week - 1st August 2014 (@jeclo)
Highlights of the Week 1: Feedback about the team has been great this week; lots of areas where their contribution has been recognised
It is easy to go unnoticed in commissioning; it is not the most glamorous part of the NHS and you are not surrounded by patients thanking you for your care. But there is plenty of commitment and passion in the work that the team does and over the last week there have been a number of times when people have paused to comment on the performance of both the clinical and managerial leaders.
We are making good progress, whether in resilience planning, integration, changes in planned care, our recovery plan or in the structure we are putting around our programmes and projects and the people who are working on all of those have been the subject of positive comment - some in passing, some for small elements and some recognising a sustained piece of leadership. Very enjoyable listening!
Highlights of the Week 2: Members of the Governing Body observing the Western Locality Board and the feedback is very positive
We had a smaller than usual Locality Board this week, given holidays and other absences, but nevertheless there was a full agenda with plenty to discuss from our plans for Integration, procurement of community services and the high risk issues around quality of care.
The Board does pay significant attention to the range of quality and performance indicators that we are struggling to meet and consider whether the actions in place are sufficient to move us towards recovery. This month issues include A&E performance, Stroke services, referral to treatment times and timeliness of communication.
The focus isn't about the target itself, it is about the impact on the patients who haven't been seen within the required timescale; the key question will be about whether we understand the risk to that cohort. Those are the issues we track in our Integrated Provider Assurance Meetings and good to see this week that our attention is recognised by the Governing Body who observed our meeting.
Highlights of the Week 3: We launch "NHS Futures-Transforming care in Devon and Plymouth" and have a clear plan for the next steps
The CCG is taking over the programme management role for the joint programme of work across health and social care organisations in Devon and Plymouth to move the system towards sustainability from PWC who have been supporting the Financially Challenged Health Economy work.
The next 2 years will see us work on the "NHS Futures" programme with streams of work led by Chief Executives looking at areas such as planned care, urgent care and specialist commissioning. We have a set of meetings now leading towards the first Programme Board meeting in late September. By that date we will have agreed leadership roles, project teams, key milestones and scope.
Hopefully this will see us enter a really productivity phase of activity across the community that will significantly shift the level of agreement and alignment around system vision.
Highlights of the Week 4: An emergency measures meeting; many have been here before us, but good energy and ideas
I have worked in several financially challenged areas, turnaround environments or other financial recovery modes and there is a pattern to how a year plays out.
There will be a very clear sense at plan stage that the numbers don't quite work and there ends with some optimistic assumptions, best case delivery schemes or simply an unresolved gap. At this stage the organisation will have spent a lot of time thinking about every possible action they could take to produce a more robust plan.
But notwithstanding that work at different points during the year the organisation will be required to improve and revisit plans with "escalated" or "emergency" measures.
We are at that place now: the unaddressed risk in the CCG is rising and we need to take further action if we are to hit our agreed, planned deficit of £14.7 million.
The team worked hard this week on the range of emergency actions we could take. As ever, we have tried to create an environment that stimulates new ideas and we did produce a new set of actions to take forward. We continue to consider elements that will impact on the range of services that we are able to commission as well as efficiency or internal measures.
It is not the most enjoyable work; the highlight is about the commitment and energy that was brought to the task.
Highlights of the Week 5: There are guest bloggers for the next 2 weeks: off on holiday leaving things in good hands
In case you haven't picked it up, I'm off on holiday for two weeks!
There will be guest bloggers filling this space next week and my thanks to Sharon Williams, who will offer highlights as the Head of our Planning and Programme Office, Sharon Matson as Head of Commissioning in the Western Locality and Rachael Burridge who will be sharing 5 extra highlights (so there will be a huge 10 next week) about our referral management service.
Enjoy that; I know I will....!
You can read other blogs related to the work of the Western Locality of NEW Devon CCG
About our workplan: Western Locality Workplan
About our Locality business: Western Locality Business
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
About our workplan: Western Locality Workplan
About our Locality business: Western Locality Business
Jerry Clough is Chief Operating Officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. He is also Locality Managing Director for the Western Locality of the CCG covering Plymouth and the surrounding areas of South Hams and West Devon.
Previously Jerry has been a Chief Executive and Finance Director in the NHS before spending several years running his own business driving programmes of change and delivering executive coaching and team and Board development.
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