FTN Conference Round Up

Last week members of MES and our parent company Electoral Reform Services travelled up to Liverpool to exhibit at the Foundation Trust Network Annual Conference and Exhibition.

The conference itself saw the introduction of Chris Hopson as new chief executive of the FTN and everyone at MES would like to take this opportunity to say a big welcome.
Conferences are usually a great time to spend bit of time away from the office with colleagues, getting a bit of perspective and catching up on the latest news.

One of the big take home messages for us this year was around the remaining provider Trusts and what the future holds for them. We had heard suggestion at the conference that only as few as 35-40 of the remaining aspirant Trusts can expect to be authorised. With the recent anouncement that the CCG deemed Cambridgeshire Community Services as unviable, it appears that crunch time for providers may be here at last.

At MES we have always asked the question 'how does this affect the member, the public and the patient?'. With the onset of more murders and executions (mergers and acquisitions) what happens to the patient's relationship with the outgoing Trust? Communication and involvement in the process can often lead to an even higher level of engagement, and in some intances can even halt the mereger altogther. When there is strong public connection to an organisation, it's a lot harder to simply remove it.

When not debating NHS engagement matters, MES and ERS staff had time to explore a little of Liverpool, grab some great asian food at Tokyou and even cook breakfast together. Getting into the swing of all things Merseyside we even found time to create some alternative Beatles songs - 'while my FT database gently beeps' being a personal favourite!

Sgt Peppers Foundation Trust Conference Stand

Yesterday, staffers from MES and ERS travelled up to Liverpool ‘on a magical mystery tour’ for the Foundation Trust Network Annual Conference. It has been good to ‘come together’ to ‘HELP!’ our database clients with latest additions to the system. Following feedback from this year’s user-group we are proud to be launching version 6 of our NHS Membership Database, here at MES we have always had the attitude of ‘we can work it out’.  Its great to have a ‘day in the life’ to catch up with faces old and new. 'We are the egg men.'

Foundation Trusts: Their contribution to the engagement debate… and science!

Next week is the annual NHS Foundation Trust Network conference, now in its 5^th year. This year it’s a 2-day event – evidence of the sector’s growth and development, and of course the huge change going on in the NHS right now. As ever, MES and its parent company ERS will be there chatting to clients, putting our feelers out and keeping our ears to the ground.

In advance of that, today we’re launching our publication about the sector’s impact on engagement.  In 2012, it is difficult to get through the day without seeing or hearing a news story, a government initiative being launched or a campaign commencing that talks about the importance to engage with us all.  We should all be engaging – being consulted, taking part, being listened to, no decision made about us without us and so on.