In response to recent media coverage on our annual Diversity and Inclusion conference, Bromley Healthcare would like to advise the following:
As a community healthcare provider in south east London, we are committed to providing responsive, high-quality, personalised care that meets the varying needs of local people and communities. We work in partnership with other services to provide joined up care for people in their homes and in community settings closer to where they live. We do not perform patient operations or run hospital wards.
Our workforce of 1,300 provide a wide range of NHS community health and care services to children, young people and adults, delivering around 770,000 patient interventions yearly. This includes district nursing, children’s community nursing, respite services for children and young people with complex needs, health visiting, urgent community response, and family nurse partnership, the latter of which provides holistic support for young and vulnerable first-time parents.
Bromley Healthcare firmly recognises the intrinsic link between high-quality patient care and the holistic wellbeing of all our communities and colleagues. This is reflected in our organisational strategy “Community First”, and our four staff-selected organisational values.
We provide mandatory training to support our staff in delivering high-quality care, which includes a short online unconscious bias training. Additionally, we offer optional courses, like diversity and inclusion training. Addressing and reducing health inequalities, and meeting inclusion health needs are national priorities. Diversity and inclusion training helps our staff to better address the needs of all the people and communities we care for, particularly those who experience the most significant health inequalities, such as those with physical and learning disabilities, those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, and LGBTQ+ communities.
The Diversity and Inclusion conference is fully optional and includes a variety of short virtual ‘lunch and learn’ style sessions spread across two days, ranging from 60 to 90 minutes, and an afternoon in-person event. Topics include autism, disabilities, racism and LGBTQ+ issues, all of which have been identified by colleagues as areas of learning and development that will support them in their roles. Around 60 delegates have registered for attendance to any one session, including the in-person event.
The conference sessions have been designed to be flexible around staff schedules, minimising impact on service delivery, whilst still supporting colleagues to develop their knowledge and skills. The conference has been shared with colleagues in the internal weekly CEO bulletin alongside our other learning and development opportunities.
In 2021 Bromley Healthcare was inspected by the Care Quality Commission. The findings of the inspection, published in early 2022, were taken very seriously and immediate actions were taken to address the areas needing improvement. The inspection came at a time when services and staff were facing unprecedented challenges during the COVID pandemic and activity focused on providing proactive and co-ordinated care to protect the most vulnerable residents, whilst managing the surge in demand for care. This plan included the continued development of our Equality programme, of which the Diversity and Inclusion conference is part. All recommendations made have been implemented in full.
We are proud of colleagues at Bromley Healthcare, who worked tirelessly during the pandemic to provide essential and compassionate care to our communities and have since been working to provide high-quality care to support system recovery and demand. Since the pandemic, we have been working with partners to transform health and care pathways, alleviating system pressures, and ultimately leading to better care for patients closer to home. We have also received significant recognition for our high-quality services. This includes:
– Healthwatch Bromley’s observation report on our Hollybank service for children and young people with complex needs.
– Our work as a pilot test and evaluation site for the National Wound Care Strategy Programme’s breakthrough lower limb care.
– Our work on children’s SEND services in Greenwich receiving Ofsted/CQC’s highest rating possible in the latest inspection.
– Our work as lead delivery partner on the One Bromley Hospital at Home service for children and young people. Since its start in 2021, the service has avoided 956 unnecessary hospital admissions, saved nearly £1 million which can be invested into other patient services, and spared families 2,100 days in hospital.
– The launch of the One Bromley Adult’s Hospital at Home service, which has been piloted this year with more than 500 Bromley residents, and has been met with significant positive feedback by those who have been treated:
“The service was absolutely amazing, you couldn’t get any better, what an amazing service they give. They all came out over a few days…. They must [have] saved the NHS a lot of money, if they hadn’t seen me I would [have] been in hospital. You couldn’t get better.”