Looking back at Twitter recently we came across a series of tweets by @MarinaOtley (the audit superstar who has led the East Midlands regional network for the last 6 years). Marina was announcing that she had stepped down as chair and the discussion focused on the fact that she had been part of the network for 15 years! Indeed, the tweet string identified some clinical professionals have been part of their regional groups for over 20 years. And that information inspired this blog!
In light of the pandemic, perhaps more than ever now we value networks and links to our peers. It is always good to have the opportunity to converse with those who face similar tasks, frustrations and challenges. For us at CASC, regional networks have always been invaluable. We first attended what was the Trent Regional Network in the mid-1990s. The group broadly covered South Yorkshire down to Leicestershire and all between with focus on primary care audit group staff. What was really superb about the quarterly one-day meetings was that in the morning the audit professionals chewed the fat, to then be joined in the afternoon by the clinical directors. This made meetings a perfect marriage between those facilitating audit and the doctors and nurses leading it and taking part whilst also adding weight to initiatives and actions in the shape of leading local medics. It is such a shame that so few clinicians now attend their regional audit meetings, not least as many will be expected to undertake lots of national audits.
Having said that, time waits for no man and what is great about regional networks is the way they evolve. Trent Network’s days were always numbered because of new NHS geography and somewhere along the way, the likes of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster headed north into a new Yorkshire Network, while remaining members were joined by Northamptonshire to form the East Midlands Network (including Lincolnshire). Membership has ebbed and flowed and at one point it looked like the network would not survive. Thanks to the hard work of many volunteers, East Midlands Network is now thriving and includes members from primary care, hospitals, mental health, ambulance, hospices and non-NHS.
Across the country, we have seen similar developments. Long standing networks like SECEN and SWANS continue in their original form whereas networks like [North London and South and East London] have joined to create a single London-wide Network super-power. And while London is served by just one network, the North West region has four! Variety is the spice of life!
Over the years all these networks have been led by a few utterly selfless volunteers burning the midnight oil ontop of their day job. Regional chairman put in so much effort: undertaking lots of administrative tasks, keeping their members engaged via communications, planning interesting regular meetings, working on important projects, etc. To be honest, it is a miracle these networks and their leaders have survived over the years with such little funding from the likes of HQIP and NHS England. It might be controversial to say but regional groups and their links with local clinical audit staff have been instrumental in the success of national clinical audits. And they always share key messages from the top. We challenge NHS England to pay each network chair an annual bursary of £1,000 to help support them in their duties. That works out at a total of £13,000 across 13 networks. When one considers HQIP’s reported £21.1 million income reported in their 2018-19 accounts and given many regional leads now take on much of the work of the old HQIP Quality Improvement Team (remember the likes of Kate Godfrey, Mandy Smith and Liz Smith) … is that seriously asking too much? Mathematically it would be 0.0006% of their 2018-19 income.
On a final note, we have talked already about how networks have evolved over the last two decades. We are sure they will continue to do so and expect the pandemic to play a huge role in this. For example, some networks represent huge geographical areas and at a personal level we can remember making the long trip from Leicester to the likes of Lincoln and Chesterfield (etc) on many occasions. At best these represent 80-minute car journeys, at worst 2 hours plus. Early starts, late finishes plus the added cost of fuel, car parking and the stress of finding the meeting room in an often face-less building and badly signposted building. Give us that choice or the opportunity to take part in a zoom call or MS Teams online meeting and the virtual meeting is winning hands down! Less stress, less cost, time saved and the added bonus of being able to record the virtual meeting so those unable to attend can watch when they want. It even makes taking minutes easier! Of course, we aren’t saying face-to-face regional meetings should never happen again… there is always value in meeting face-to-face, but virtual meetings are a game-changer for regional networks and even local meetings. For example, we’ve always struggled to get patients involved in audit for lots of reasons. Now we can invite them to observe and participate from the comfort of their own homes. Who would have thought that possible 20 years ago?
While the pandemic has impacted us all, it has also highlighted new opportunities we can and must seize. Face-to-face regional meetings in cramped rooms in the bowels of hospitals with 20 attendees can be upgraded to virtual meetings with possibly hundreds of participants. And with a tiny financial contribution to support the hard working regional network chairs these networks can thrive in the next decade.