BOSSES of North Cumbria's acute NHS trust have praised the efforts of their staff who battled through winter pressures and reduced staffing levels during the resident doctors strike "with professionalism."
North Cumbria Integrated Care's board members discussed the significant challenges the trust faced over winter and throughout the strikes at their latest meeting on Wednesday.
Resident doctors of the British Medical Association walked out between December 17 and December 22 over pay. It was the second strike in as many months, following a walkout between November 14 and November 19.
In her update for the board, Interim Chief Executive Trudie Davies praised the work of her staff, who worked through the reduction in staffing levels as well as the expected winter pressures.
She said: "I will start by saying, on behalf of all execs and non-executive directors, a massive thank you to our staff.
"Winter has been and continues to be very tough and on top of our normal winter pressures, they've managed resident doctors' strikes with professionalism and keeping our patients safe."
She said that reports from a number of board members demonstrate the level of "care, compassion and positivity" that staff treat their patients with at NCIC.
Ms Davies said: "That was really reflected yesterday in my trip down to London with all the other chief execs where we are all very clear that the way to improve patient experience is by improving staff experience and valuing and recognising the contribution of the amazing people that we have.
She said that this approach "will help us to deliver a better patient experience."
Vanessa Connor, Planned Care Lead gave an update on performance across the trust's services.
She said that NCIC has "started to see the dial shift" in performance, particularly in Planned Care.
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Ms Connor said: "This data is the end of November and we just started our additional activity in November and that's been ramping up as we've got things in place."
She said that the number of patients waiting 52 weeks for treatment after a referral has reduced from 1,447 to 1,434.
The total Referral to Treatment (RTT) waiting list decreased from 39,664 in October to 39,040 in November.
Meanwhile, external factors have seen the Accident and Emergency Department face difficulties but staff have performed well despite this.
The Integrated Performance Report presented to board members revealed that the level of patients spending 12 hours in A&E deteriorated in November to 12.6 per cent, from 8.9 per cent in October.
More recent data indicates a slight improvement in some emergency care metrics, despite winter pressures and the resident doctors strike.
Ms Connor said: "A&E, I think we've already discussed about the challenges, we have had a very difficult couple of months, it's impacted on both our emergency care and on our electives.
"So we've had the industrial action and the first two weeks in January were significantly challenging from a demand perspective, particularly when we had that icy weather.
"It has been particularly challenging but despite that we have managed to maintain and even slightly improve, so I think it's just testament to the hard work the staff are putting in."
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