David Peat on steady staff

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In times like this I'm reminded of the film Zulu.

With financial holes opening up in the acute sector, staff lay-offs, bed closures, clinical reviews galore, myriad public consultations and top-skimming of cash from viable primary care trusts, it is not the prescription for an easy or ordered life.

In times like this I'm reminded of the film Zulu.

With financial holes opening up in the acute sector, staff lay-offs, bed closures, clinical reviews galore, myriad public consultations and top-skimming of cash from viable primary care trusts, it is not the prescription for an easy or ordered life.

Being something of a historian, I am reminded of the Welsh soldier facing the massing hordes at Rourke's Drift, and coming out with the immortal line that he only 'came here to build a bridge'. My role, of course, is to be the Stanley Baxter character who tells his frightened troops: 'Steady lads, steady.'

We must be steadfast in our resolve. Whatever our distractions, we must never lose sight of the reason we are here and what we are paid for. It may seem pretty obvious, but I don't see any harm in telling my staff to remember that patients are still out there to be tended, looked after and treated.

I'm proud when I find staff not putting 'self' before their public duty. A couple of 'business as usual' successes spring to mind.

Our pioneering child protection pilot in Rossendale has not only saved more kids and families from potential harm, but served as a model for good partnership-working between our primary care trust staff and Lancashire county council's children's service front-liners. We learned from the Victoria Climbie case, and hammered into shape a tightly knit, multi-agency assessment team that is now ready to be rolled out elsewhere in the PCT area, and then beyond.

It wasn't easy either. There were culture clashes, different ways of working, issues of governance and different terms and conditions. But no-one let their own distractions prevail. A year on, it is up, running and successful.

Then there's our single assessment process for older people, another case of working with our social care partners for the common good. Basically, it's designed to cut through the organisational barriers between us, so that a patient can get a quicker and better service delivery.

Now one individual can sort out the lot, whereas previously it needed five or six. Good for the patient and saves staff time too.