It's been an excellent few days with Kanika Goel at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with the inimitable Professor Lesley Dwyer and her team. For those outside the UK, Norwich is a beautiful, old city full of history, literature and culture. It also faces an ageing population, with complex health needs, and a PFI major centre at NNUH. Spending time with the executive team and seeing first hand what the challenges are and how they are being overcome with team work, focus and great clinical effort across the board, was very heartening.
There is so much opportunity to do things differently in Norfolk, with a dispersed population and two new builds happening across the county. The roles, responsibilities and accountabilities across the system, as well as the opportunities to collaborate with one another, secondary care and local authorities as well as the impressive research community at Norwich Research Park, including University of East Anglia and Quadram Institute among others, really stand out to the eye.
Sometimes in health care we are so focused on surviving and making budgets fit and flow happen, no matter what, that we can't see the unique opportunities to transform care through new pathways, digitally enabled, and through partnerships, a focus on patient, carer and family needs and the co-production possibilities for public value delivery.
In NNUH as they embrace EPR rollout, and drive through transformation and operations to live out their PRIDE values, there is a significant chance to shift things to the left as well as to embrace new and different ways of working together. I really look forward to seeing the work come out from this trust over the next year or so.
While the challenges are great, with the talent on the ground there, including through their Sustainability focus (with Ellen Goodwin and Dr Amy Greengrass and the Strategy and Estates team under Simon), there is an exciting tipping point ahead in how they approach the future of health care for the region to be about long-term wellbeing for all.
Thanks to you all for such a warm welcome and great discussions. And for the great company!
Chris Cobb Alex Berry Ed Prosser-Snelling Lesley Dwyer Kanika Goel Ellen Goodwin Sarah Gooch Bernard Brett and the rest of the team... Tektology Professor Ann Marie Cannaby
