We were delighted to have
welcomed Roy Lilley, the influential NHS commentator, to Halton over the last
weekend of September. Roy makes great use of social media, regularly
using Twitter and writing a blog that reaches thousands of people across the
NHS. Roy is not a massive fan of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) but
came to find out about our work. This is what he said in a blog titled
“Owen”:
Here's a question for you? When did you last use the word 'perfidia'. It's a great word isn't it? In case you are wondering it means an act of betrayal or disloyalty. See if you can work it into a conversation today!
I was reminded of the word by Owen. Owen lives in Widnes, his body is in a wheelchair that is built like a tank; it has batteries, levers and knobs and a communications device that sounds like Stephen Hawkins. Owen's body may be in the chair but his mind is focused and sharp and lives in a world of thoughtfulness, challenge and rich, self-deprecating humour.
Owen has conversations by bashing and wrestling with a screen. How he made it say 'perfidia' I'll never know!
To know Owen is to live where you are challenged, provoked and made to think. Owen has no room in his life for perfidies.
We debated the balance of efficiency
and the democratic deficit between health and social care. Owen's erudite
responses made me wonder if there was a cable connecting his box to
Hawkins! No! Owen is just heroic and really good company.
Owen is employed by Halton CCG. He is the Engagement and Involvement Manager. He is a manager like no one else! He is a colleague and a mate, an employee and a part of the team. When the team goes out for the night he goes with them. If the pub doesn't have decent disabled access, they find someplace else to go.
That's the way Halton does business. They are a CCG but not like any other CCG. They are Vanguard, pioneers, beacons, pilots and ground breakers. If Carling did CCGs they'd probably all be like this.
The way Halton does business is an example to us all. Their minor injuries unit looks like a hospital, pulling together; an imaging unit, GP surgery, a dentist's, a pharmacy and a pathology lab. It is very, very clever and very, very busy. Reducing the load on A&E by astonishing figures.
The way Halton does business is to partner the local rugby league club in wellness clinics, being blood donors, reading classes, health checks and community public health. The players are part of the community team and are local icons. They help touch the lives of hard to reach groups and shape the lives of the youngsters who idolise them.
If half the rugby and soccer clubs in the country did half as well as they do in Halton we would all be a whole lot better off.
I have grave reservations that CCGs
are sustainable or worth perusing. So many are GP dominated bridge clubs. The
imminent arrival of population based capitated budgets casts a dark shadow.
Halton is different. They don't
commission, they make things happen. They don't buy healthcare they shape its
future. If they were in Formula one they would be changing four tires in under
two seconds. If they were climbers they would be up and over Everest. If they
were sailors they would be around the world.
Halton are ringmasters and Svengalis. They perform, virtuoso. If they were painters they would be in the RA summer exhibition.
As it is, they are none of these things; they are simply men and women who go to work to make things better, faster, more equitable and more accessible. It's exciting, refreshing and completely different. They plan to take over a pub as part of a public health campaign.... don't ask!
This is one of the very few places I have been that 'gets' public health. They understand the lunacy of fixing people up, when keeping them fit in the first place makes so much more sense.
They want to make sure no one is left
behind and certainly not Owen.
