Yesterday was indeed my birthday, and probably one of the best I've had. It began with being woken by lots of texts wishing the best for the day, and backed up with several more on facebook. I text some back to say I'd be in Alberts from 8 onwards, so if they could join me that would be fun. I didn't expect many affirmative responses as it is still a 'school' day for most of us.
I had had a 'bit of a night' the night before and so wasn't looking forward to the work side of the day. I trudged down stairs rubbing my eyes and wondering why the light was so strong. There, on the kitchen table was a card and a present from Andy. He'd already gone to work. It was a modern version of the old board game 'Risk' we used to play as students.
That was nice wasn't it?
Have you noticed that when you're not feeling too good and need to get somewhere, the time seems to hurry by? So I rushed to get ready and cycled off to work. This is one of the two half days in the week when I still actually see ordinary general practice patients. My new practice are great and really appreciate me working there. Everyone wished me a cheerful 'happy birthday'.
That was nice.
I saw the patients and started to feel better again. In the afternoon I was due to chair a quarterly quality assurance meeting with representatives of the Central Manchester Foundation Trust, a group of five or six separate hospitals under one management structure. My main job now is to work with them to commission services for the central Manchester population, as Clinical Director for the Central Manchester Clinical Commissioning group. I enjoy it and I think I'm quite good at it. People say nice things anyway, like they think I'm 'the voice of reason'.
That's nice. So after surgery I set off to meet them.
This meeting is about holding them to account for quality performance. So we go through Schedule 3 and Schedule 5 which include CQUINs, SUIs, audits KPIs, NICE compliance and so on, and with Francis 2 on it's way I really have to be on the ball, as I'm sure you can imagine. Luckily we'd had a pre-meet and I have great support staff. When I first started doing this a couple of years ago it was a bit controversial with disagreements about this, that and the other. Now I would say it's a genuine enquiry after quality and patient safety issues for the good of our population. We can still disagree but usually we find a way forward. Obviously, some, like the busybodies at the Cluster, think we're a bit too cosy now. I'm aware of this risk, but I think we have a proper relationship, and we have been working much more cooperatively in the last couple of years with positive effect. Anyway, this is an important meeting.
Later, after the meeting, I had a little siesta and then Andy and I had a meal at Albert's and the rest joined us. The evening was excellent with a great mix of people who didn't really know each other but got on brilliantly. I would have expected Tim, Jen and Andy to be there, but it was wonderful to see Tony, Masud, John and Mu. We ended up playing poker, luckily not for real money or I'd have been cleaned out.
Anyway back to the meeting. I had gone to the Board room early to remind myself of the papers and run through the agenda in my head. The CMFT people arrived en-mass. Two of then were carrying bags. They put them on the table, and out of them came some juice, paper plates and plastic mugs, and a huge cake in the shape of a lion. 'We have a baking genius amongst us, we knew it was your birthday and so we've made you a cake'. It was in the shape of a lion with a more than passing resemblance to the one about to chair the meeting. On top was a candle holder which when you twisted the base played 'happy birthday'. Thanks Liz and all of the CMFT team.
Now isn't that nice?
I've since had several emails addressed to the Lion man! A perfect surprise in the middle of a perfect day.
No comments:
Post a Comment