Diary & Blog w/c 26th May 2014

YOUR NORWICH

The hospital contract is agreed, the pain has been shared, and hopefully ink will be on the page early next week. The late stages of contract negotiation have similar rules to those of Fight Club, so I will not touch on the discussions at all. It is enough to say that the deal is done, relationships are largely intact, and we can move forward with our transformation plans for the City.

Operation Domino has been a real success in getting organisations to work together and reduce delays in the urgent care system, but the next big challenge is reducing the number of people who become acutely unwell in the first place. And if we can't reverse the growth in hospital admissions with real pace the whole system is going to run into serious financial and operational problems. So we need to act at whole city scale, getting services mobilised this year, and make significant investment with belief but no certainty of success.

Next week we'll be launching 'YourNorwich' - our five year plan to create joined up community health and social care services - the Eastern Daily Press have very helpfully trailed it for us here.

We hope it will be a transformation triple: first bringing health services together around clusters of GP surgeries; second developing unified health and social care pathways; and third a major step forward in the way in which we design services in partnership with the people they are designed to serve. Health and care designed for you with you.

The formal launch will be at our AGM on 24th June (Open Norwich, London Street, 10am), and if you're a resident of Norwich please do come - we'll do all the statutory bits in 45 minutes and then throw the meeting open to the public - not just to debate the issues, but to set the agenda. Mental Health Services? Residential and Nursing Homes? Access to your GP? Healthcare out of Hours? Patient Transport? You decide and we'll facilitate. Every project will then have a community panel to develop the services in partnership with local clinicians. Your health, your care, your taxes. YourNorwich.

SOCIAL MEDIA PIONEERS

I opened up the HSJ supplement looking for tips on how to use social media to better connect with the public - I have 1,600 twitter followers but only 25% of them are Norwich residents, and having a transparent organisation with an open door approach to engagement is always limited to the number of people who know they're welcome and take the trouble to stop by. It is not false modesty to say that I believed that my tweets and blogs were moderately successful, and fairly standard - particularly as I pinched the whole idea for publishing a diary and a weekly account from Mark Newbold.

So, genuinely surprised, faintly embarrassed, but also very pleased and very grateful to find my name in there, and in such company. Annie Coops is a champion of social media, Teresa Chinn started a movement, James Titcombe has turned tragic and avoidable loss into a determined, balanced, and very dignified campaign to raise safety standards across the NHS.

And where do you start when describing what Dr Kate Granger has accomplished? Me, I tweet a bit, publish my diary, and blog about my week. The important thing for me is that it has validated the effort of waking up on a Saturday and writing even when nothing flows, and given me the encouragement to keep going and raise my game. So thank you to Andrew, Shaun, Emma, and Jenni - it was a lovely surprise and I'm still smiling.

The names are in alphabetical order and so it is entirely luck that I've ended up with the staple through my picture, just behind my right shoulder. This has, however, caused some hilarity in the office - Emma Maier has apparently made me a Health Service Journal Centrefold (I like horse riding, sunsets, and world peace).

Fortunately I'm in Liverpool most of the week for the NHS Confederation Conference, and will not have to bear further teasing. And I hear Kate Granger is speaking. Wonder if she'll autograph my copy?