From Hans Bromwich, Cowes:

Last Thursday I attended the first IW NHS Trust Board meeting for 2020.

It was immediately apparent I had walked into a much leaner, slicker operation.

Gone were the lengthy patient story introductions and it was straight into business, with the board assuring it was on top of many of the issues which beset it at the end of last year.

Four stars for catering had been re-established, and most importantly a 100 per cent success rate was announced when it came to discharging patients from MAU with discharge summaries.

Those responsible for onward care should no longer find themselves left in the dark, and hopefully these basic standards will not be allowed to slip.

Recruitment still remains a challenge, but I am delighted to say there is a more upbeat energy evident.

Gone is the tired old rhetoric of, ‘it’s difficult to recruit talent to the IW’, replaced by job adverts which extoll the attraction of choosing the IW as a superb work/life balance choice.

I recently witnessed first hand the changes making the whole process of medical care not only more efficient but also more smoothly integrated.

My journey through the stages of referral, assessment and on to surgical pre-assessment was faultless.

Elsewhere, I accompanied a patient on the path from urgent GP referral, through A and E, and on to a specialist clinic. The whole process was seamless and couldn’t have been more caring or professional.

We occasionally hear horror stories but I can only speak as one finds. Fragmentation between departments has been an issue in the past, but I witnessed none of this, everything progressed seamlessly and efficiently.

Yes, I only witnessed a snapshot of a relatively small section within the hospital, and yes, it was super busy, but there was also a professional calm.

What I saw was impressive, and if it is being replicated across the whole hospital, then things appear to be, at long last, on the up.

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