Dr Lade Smith CBE visits services across the Trust and meets our Medical Education team and Trust doctors

On Tuesday 11 June, our Trust hosted the Royal College of Psychiatrists' President Dr Lade Smith CBE at an event organised by our Medical Education team. Dr Smith was given a tour of three Trust services and then gave a presentation to Trust staff and doctors on the theme of ‘Compassionate Care’.

Dr Lade Smith, as the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has laid out her priorities which will underpin her term in office. Dr Smith, in her candidate statement said, “As your President, I will address the treatment gap; nurture psychiatrists so they can fulfil their potential; address mental health inequality and raise the profile of psychiatry for the public, for patients and for psychiatrists”. Her visit to our Trust gave her a broad overview of our services and how we are developing our psychiatrists.

Dr Kwame Fofie, Executive Medical Director, took Dr Smith to visit Miranda House, where she was able to speak with staff on our successes with the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) initiative that is currently being adopted nationally, following our successful local implementation. Adrian Elsworth, General Manager for Mental Health (Unplanned) spoke with Dr Smith to highlight the keys areas which underpinned our success with RCRP. The prevailing theme of their discussion was that of relationships and their importance when building this initiative into the partnership between NHS Trusts, police and other organisations.

Dr Smith was then able to visit our Mental Health Liaison team to learn more about the introduction of our Emergency Department streaming pathway for mental health patients. This pathway enables patients who present with mental health concerns when accessing the A&E department at Hull Royal Infirmary to be supported by our trained staff in a specialist area on site. Dr Smith noted that the location of where this unit was placed was significant to its efficiency, with mental health patients being able to be treated discreetly and alongside any acute healthcare needs they may have being addressed.

Following these insights into our Trust’s innovative approaches to providing healthcare to patients who require it in an unplanned manner, Dr Smith was taken to one of our inpatient units. Our Inspire General Adolescent Unit is one of our most modern facilities, providing care for CAMHS patients. Dr Smith was given a tour of the unit by Sarah Chew, Medical Education Nurse Lead, to see how the bespoke building provides a comfortable and therapeutic environment for young people and to learn more about how we provide teaching in Psychiatry to HYMS medical students.

Dr Smith shared with staff that she would take away a broad range of learnings from how our Trust operates and delivers high quality care to our patients. She highlighted that our vision and execution for Right Care, Right Person and our Emergency Department streaming facilities in particular were exemplary and efforts would be made to share our learnings with national organisations and senior decision makers.

During the afternoon, doctors and the wider Medical Education team came together to learn more from Dr Lade Smith from her position as President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and also to meet their peers.

Following an introduction from Dr Kwame Fofie, the audience of the conference were given a presentation from Dr Smith on ‘Promoting Patient-Centred compassionate care in Mental Health’. Drawing on her passion for this area of care delivery, Dr Smith shared a patient story which highlighted the need for continuity of care and how often this level of care could deliver better patient outcomes as well as cost effective practice. Along with insights from this patient story, she was able to share learnings from a study which found the likelihood of both emergency department visits and psychiatric hospitalisation of a patient was dramatically reduced when they had received continuity of care. Dr Smith noted however that much of the practice she had witnessed during her visits around our Trust had shown her that we are already leading the way through many of our services.

Our Chief Operating Officer, Lynn Parkinson, addressed this insight by agreeing that we are very focussed on instilling this principle across the Trust already, but we remain open to continual improvements and taking it even further.

The event was rounded up by a Q&A session with Dr Smith which gave the audience the opportunity to ask questions around compassionate care, as well as insights into her role as President for the Royal College. Dr Soraya Mayet, Director of Medical Education, hosted the session which yielded a variety of questions, including one which asked what she would say to someone who was considered a career in psychiatry to which she answered,

“Being a doctor is brilliant, but being a psychiatrist means you can work on both the body and the mind. Mental health problems cannot be addressed by other doctors, and this type of work is what ultimately moves us as human beings.”

Attendees of the event made comment on how insightful and thought provoking the presentation had been. The opportunity to meet colleagues and peers was also particularly supportive and enjoyable, in a world where much of our interaction is virtual these in person meetings deliver a renewed sense of motivation.

The Trust would like to thank Dr Lade Smith for her time, her sharing of knowledge and her plans for work in mental health going forward.