Caroline's Blog

With over 40,000 patients to treat every year it is so important we listen to our patients to make our services better.  The people we look after are the heart of everything we do and if what we are doing isn’t working or isn’t right we need to change.  I am always interested in people’s comments to my blog particularly when it is about our care and their experiences.  As many of you know quite often when having treatment or consultations at any hospital – extended waits occur.  This is completely unacceptable for any patient.  We have been working hard at The Christie to improve this.  However, this week we got it wrong for one of our patients who let me know through this blog.  Treatment and care at The Christie can be quite complex but that is no excuse.  Needless to say we will listen to this patient and learn from this case to improve services to our patients.

Last night I had the privilege to be the guest of honour at Altrincham Grammar School prize giving.  It was a fantastic event and the boys were celebrating outstanding success in their GCSE’s.  In my address I spoke about the importance of listening to people to understand the real issues in life as I was reminded this week by the person who contacted me.  It was a pleasure to speak at such a lovely and very happy school.

We praise modesty as a virtue, but it’s important that brilliant work is acknowledged and applauded. It’s good for everyone as it enables the sharing of best practice and new ideas.

That’s why since coming to the Christie I’ve encouraged teams to enter for awards. We should be confident in putting our initiatives and achievements up for the scrutiny of expert judging panels and proud to be publicly praised if we are shortlisted or win.

We’ve been shortlisted for a range of prestigious awards this year and already won a number. An excellent endorsement of our services for patients. But I am really delighted that we have just won two awards for a very different piece of work. A campaign that we could never have predicted and that was totally unique in its circumstances.  And a campaign that really tested us and required us to be fearless, creative and opportunistic.

Our ‘Cash Back for Christie’ campaign for the return of our charity’s £6.5 million won 'Best Low Budget Campaign' and 'Best Public Services Communications Campaign' at the How-Do Public Services Communications Awards 2009. The second award was joint with Liverpool City Council for their European Capital of Culture campaign, and the judges said that “both companies have clearly provided a benchmark for future campaigns across the UK.”

This campaign was always about people power and could never have succeeded without the fantastic support of local people, our patients, fundraisers and the Manchester Evening News. The best possible reason to push modesty to one side and celebrate this success.  These are the people’s awards and we thank you.

Yesterday I went from detailed meetings about complex performance, financial and organisational issues to an uplifting, exciting evening dinner where the creative ideas flowed.

I was with three inspiring, clever, bright women. All with very active lives, children and minds.

I was introduced to them through a friend and they are so supportive of the Christie that they want to use their enthusiasm and high-profile contacts to help our charity.  We brainstormed lots of fundraising and PR ideas (and they also volunteered their husbands to run the Great Manchester Run for us next May, as we are the official local charity for the event !).

I always judge people as individuals and normally hate generalising, but the fantastic trio I met last night makes me feel there is sometimes an extra special ingredient in women. 

Maybe it’s the ability to use both our emotions and intellect to make things happen.  

Together we can change the world.

• Sunday 16th May 2010.

 An exciting diary date for Manchester, runners and our charity.

For the first time we've been chosen as the official local charity for the Great Manchester Run.  For the next three years as well.

Fantastic news as this is the event of the year in this successful city, with 35,000 people pounding the streets. I've run many times and the atmosphere is really uplifting, but I'll be running with even more pride next Spring.

Many people have run for our charity in previous years, but we hope thousands more don the Christie T-shirt in support of our patients.

See you all in May!

I’ve always thought the nurses here are special.  What’s great is when other people acknowledge this as well – and in such a high-profile way.

Steve Hill, our procedure nurse specialist recently won a national excellence in oncology nursing award for driving forward a nurse-led abdominal paracentesis service which is set to dramatically reduce hospital stay. 

The first nurse-led service of its kind dedicated to cancer patients in the UK and an excellent example of nurses bringing improvements for patient care into mainstream practice.

The judging panel said the award submission was, “An exceptional entry, head and shoulders above the rest”, and congratulated Steve for his forward vision, diligence and determination in driving the project from conception to completion.

And this week we’ve had a TV documentary team in filming some pilot clips for a possible new series about cancer nurses. Steve Hill was one of the specialist nurses filmed to showcase the caring and very skilled role that our specialist nurses have in this organisation.

As a former nurse and a current chief executive I couldn’t be prouder.