Being part of Gold Line is one of the things I’m most proud of An interview with Ann Wagner

Ann Wagner is Director of Strategy and Business Development for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. She was part of the team that put together the initial funding bid for the Gold Line and later became the executive sponsor. Ann tells us how the work got started, what they’ve learned along the way, and why she feels so proud to be part of the Gold Line.

How did the Gold Line get started?

Part of my role is to look for funding opportunities that will help us innovate and trial new ideas. As a hospital, we’re firmly behind the idea of providing more care at home – which might seem an unusual thing for a hospital to be saying! We see hospital based care reducing  as we take more and more care out to patients in their own home, care home, or hospice. Whatever is right for them.

We had the chance to apply for funding for a project which encouraged frontline teams and back office corporate functions to work together to improve care. At the time we were developing our telemedicine service (using remote video conferencing to bring doctors and nurses direct to patients through technology). So I put a bid in for a telemedicine project and we thought end-of-life care would be a good thing to focus on. There was a lot in the news about poor end-of-life care and we have great palliative care clinicians.

That’s how it started, and I’ve been the executive sponsor for the work ever since.

What was your role in setting up the Gold Line?

I just really tried to open doors, or move barriers and encourage people to do things. It’s been absolutely led by the clinical team, and by the patients, carers, and the partnerships with GPs and the local hospice.

The health professionals are so dynamic and they have lots of ideas, but they’ve not been used to having dedicated project resource, time to innovate, or transformation funding specifically to support change. So having a project manager and a budget, and some extra time for their plans was really helpful. I hope they would say I helped them navigate some of the business planning.

Would you say quality improvement is a core part of your role?

Our new medical director has developed our strategy for how to improve quality, but as an executive team member I’m clear that quality improvement is core for every one of us. Although I’m not a clinician, it’s all about a creating partnerships. That’s why I like the idea of shared purpose.

I would say quality improvement is the heart of care. I’m a great believer that if you get the quality right, the money will follow. I believe in empowering teams. The majority of people don’t just come to work to do their job, they come to work to do something great. Particularly people working in end of life care – they go the extra mile because they care. I think that’s at the heart of quality improvement.

It’s been an absolute privilege to be associated with the Gold Line. It’s one of the things I am most proud of in my entire career. I sobbed when I watched the film. Because, to me, it’s everything we’re about in the NHS – compassion and dignity.

What have you learned from this project?

I learnt that you need different skills at different points in a project. We had three changes of project manager, and although there was a continuity challenge in that, overall I think it was a benefit. You often need a completely different type of person with particular skills at the start of a project, than you do near the end.

I think we were lucky to have all the essential ingredients for a successful project. We had patients who had days left to live, but who wanted to come and talk to us. They were happy to be involved, they wanted to give something back. So I learned not to be frightened to ask people to take part, because actually they wanted to, they were passionate about it.

I know everyone talks about clinical leadership but I have never seen a more powerful example than at the Gold Line. For me, it was amazing. Giving two palliative care clinicians the time and the space, it’s been a joy watching them grow and learning from them and seeing the Gold Line support people in their last year of life.