Passing Microsoft Excel Advanced!

16^th October 2015- 30^th October 2015

Recently I have been working on a presentation for our CQUIN workshops that we hold each year with our providers. The workshops enable us to discuss with our providers potential CQUINs for the following year and generate innovative ideas whilst ensuring the CQUINs are realistic for the provider to achieve.

I was feeling adventurous when creating the presentation and used “Prezi” which is relatively new presentation software, instead of the traditional PowerPoint! I hadn't used Prezi before, but it was much more straightforward than I thought and I am very pleased with the outcome! It helps to create a unique and engaging presentation. I will definitely use Prezi in my final year at university when I do presentations in my seminars to tutors and colleagues.

I’ve continued working on the Performance section of the CCG website which is almost finished. I think it is much clearer and easier now for a member of the public to find out how our CCG monitors quality and be able to understand the array of measures used to do this. I’ve also been working a great deal on the Practice Nurse area on the CCG website along with Kate from the Communications team. The nurses in Eastern Cheshire will have access to information on PGDs, the training and education events they attend, policies and protocols and have a 'News' section. My website designing skills have definitely progressed!

I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to enhance my personal development skills whilst on my placement. This week I went on an Advanced Microsoft Excel course. It was an extremely beneficial course and I learnt a lot including: validation rules, formula precedents and dependents, error checking, watch windows, protection, complex functions, pivot tables/charts and macros. I am pleased to say I have passed this course! It will be of great use for my role at the CCG as I often create reports and use excel. It will also be of great use when I return to university and in future job roles.

Also this week, I created a commissioning intentions survey for the patients in Eastern Cheshire in order to hear their opinions on what they think should be commissioned. I will be working with the Communications and Engagement Team to promote and encourage patients to take the survey.

In addition to this, I joined a WebEx on Quality Improvement along with my manager Andrew. I was surprised to find that it covered concepts I learnt in one of my modules during my second year of university such as ideas from Deming and Ishikawa.  I wrote an essay for this module which talked in depth about Deming, Ishikawa and their influence on quality improvement. Therefore it was very interesting to see that theoretical studies such as this are applied to business on a daily basis and are adopted by members of staff in the NHS!

The Friends & Family Test!

 2^nd October 2015- 16^th October 2015

Over the past couple of  weeks, myself and a staff member from CVS Cheshire East have been working together to improve the Quality & Performance section on the CCG’s website, particularly our performance documents including CQUINs, Quality Premium, NHS Constitution and A&E data which we share with the public. I am in the process of ‘translating’ the complex NHS terminology so that the public can easily understand the documents should they want to. The visitor will be provided with a brief description of what each term means when they click on it and why and how we measure it.  I will be presenting back at our next Clinical Quality & Performance Meeting on our progress.

Additionally this week, Sally and I have met with a couple of our ophthalmology providers to finalize the contracts which is very exciting! I have been fortunate enough to view the whole process of contracting, starting from going out to tender for a contract to the commencement of the service delivery.

I have also prepared a report based on the Trust’s Friends & Family Test (FFT) performance. Patients across the country are asked when they leave hospital whether they would recommend the hospital's services to friends and family.This is a vital feedback tool for patients on their experience of the NHS services including: A&E, Inpatient, Outpatient, Maternity, Community, Mental Health and the GP Practices in Eastern Cheshire.  The results have been very positive for East Cheshire Trust!

In addition to this, I also completed a “Presentation Skills” course which definitely helped when I presented our commissioning intentions for 16/17 at our staff briefing meeting which is held monthly. I gave an update to all our staff members on the process we are following and where we are up to with it. 

Presenting our Commissioning Intentions!

21^st September 2015- 2^nd October 2015

Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately- I’m doing two weeks in one as I’ve been extremely busy and not had the chance to write up what I’ve been up to!

I am making progress with the Ophthalmology contracts; two are near completion! The contract manager Sally and I are are meeting with one of the providers next week so that we can ensure we have everything ready for the commencement of the contract and to go through the final documents that we need.

This week I have also compiled a report based on a multitude of data about the Trust’s performance on a range of areas such as Pneumonia, Heart Failure, Diabetes and COPD. It is an informative and visual report with graphs to send to the Trust in order for them to clearly see their current performance in these areas and their peer group position amongst other similar CCGs.

Last Friday I attended my first Health Voice meeting. HealthVoice is an independent, voluntary body that advises our CCG on the planning and buying of health services, helping ensure that the needs of patients, carers and the public are taken fully into account when decisions are made. It was an interesting and productive meeting with the patients sharing their opinions about the latest updates at the CCG. I have also been assisting the Communications and Engagement Team with a few tasks regarding Health Voice such as the Health Voice Pharmacy Letter Campaign. This is a campaign aiming to get more members of the public involved with HealthVoice. As the degree I am studying for at university is Business and Marketing, it is great to see how the CCG promotes itself and HealthVoice to the public.

Another project I am involved in is assisting Jacki Wilkes, the Associate Director of Commissioning, in developing our commissioning intentions for 2016/17.I have been collating all the proposed initial intentions from key members of staff at the CCG and we have met with patients to inform them of the process and listen to their thoughts. 

I then presented this at the Locality Meeting in Macclesfield. As mentioned in previous blogs, this is a meeting between around 50 GPs and Practice Managers in Eastern Cheshire and a few key members of the CCG in order to give updates on work streams. I presented our commissioning intentions process for 2016/17 at the meeting, explaining where we are currently up to and asked for everyone's thoughts on potential commissioning intentions based upon any gaps in their local area, any key areas for development in a hospital and a community setting and the benefit of the intention. We've received some great responses and I will be collating them next week in time for the next step of the process; to prioritise and shortlist the intentions!

In addition to this I have been learning about Terms Of References in meetings as I have had to create the Terms Of References for a new meeting to replace/merge the Finance & Activity meeting and the Service Quality Review meeting. It was useful to learn about the formality of meetings and the rules involved.