Posted on: 26 May 2020
CNWL Project Manager Kris Ho never expected to be working night shifts or long days.
As a project manager, she was used to setting up new systems, not actually helping run these clinical systems.
But this is what Kris and colleagues from a Divisional Business and Transformation Team have been doing.
They are typical examples of non-clinical staff from CNWL helping the Trust to make sure new systems would bed in smoothly.
In the case of Kris and Ed Austin, Business, Strategy, Transformation Manager, they have been helping in the Central Flow Hub so that it could launch.
This has meant training, new working hours including weekends and nights whilst also managing their regular roles.
The Central Flow Hub is a team that helps the Trust manage inpatient referrals and bed requests from clinicians. It was brought in as part of a planned transformation programme to reduce burdensome processes and enable cross-system support and management of the bed base.
It was part of a planned transformation programme, but the decision was taken to make sure it could go live sooner than anticipated because of Covid-19.
To help it go live, Kris supported the service to go live including working three day shifts in a row over launch week, while also developing up processes and balancing the day job. This meant liaising closely with operational leads for the various services that were going to benefit most from the hub and in thinking pragmatically about which team could act as gatekeepers.
Kris said: “We felt that launching this would help staff on the ground as it is able to take on more of the administrative tasks, freeing up staff time to focus on caring for their patients.
“It obviously takes time to recruit staff. I am glad the business and project managers from the team have stepped up and agreed to take on admin roles so we could get this up and running.
“It’s quite different to our day jobs where we don’t do shift work. Here we have long days or a lot of night shifts on a rota.
“It’s been a supportive team but the work itself is quite intense and you’ve got to be very organised.
“What I found quite challenging was in understanding the aspects of patients’ clinical needs so it is important to have supportive clinicians with whom you could have conversations with, knowing what questions to ask and what information is needed for a decision to be made.”
“I’ve found this a really useful experience.”
Ed said: “For me it’s provided me with a wider understanding of the mental health system. I like to think I’m familiar with the long term plan and how that links to our services but to see clinicians interact with other clinicians and to plan care for other people was very useful. It’s given me something extra to think about in relation to change management.”