A Day in the Life of... Mark Reed

So today (Thursday 26th of Jan) I’m up at 7am reviewing the emails while I munch on my Wheetos. There’s lots of focus currently on replacing beds/chairs/furniture and flooring across our homes and seeing where we are at with this and the next steps......

.....Then I’m looking remotely at morning handovers and clinical reviews across the homes, looking for things that need follow up. One home has had a family member return from hospital and they had prepared an altered menu and snack list for her diabetes, so I check in with the chef that they know this and its importance.

We’ve had a couple of very poor pathway zero readmissions yesterday so I draft up my email of complaint based on what I know and save this to add the specific list of medications not supplied later.

Then it’s making sure the kids are dressed, hair tied back (theirs not mine) making sure everything is in the bag for the day (mine not theirs) getting a strong coffee down before heading out the door.

I’m heading out to one of our homes so I take the eldest and drop her to school on my way out and then after she’s at the gates, I have a 30 minute drive to enjoy my current audiobook (the Poppy War Trilogy) 

And then getting into the home - it's 'hello' to everyone - and then into the adventure of combining; considering the compatibility of admission assessments with existing family members and homes, have we arranged quotes for a new carpet on a flight of stairs before installing a chair stair lift, a light hearted conversation with one of our nurses about which one of us is more of a pain in the bum than the other, and the fact a step ladder would be needed if the joking threats of purely comical violence ever came to pass. 

I’m then onto chasing PETROC college for whether they have any street art students that wish to decorate a temporary building on the grounds of one of our homes.

After that it’s measuring up corridors for floor refurbishment and climbing onto one of the flat roofs at the home with maintenance to look at water accumulation on the and felt needing to be replaced. 

Then we inspect external guttering and look at whether the different quotes are going to cover the full spec of works and looking at whether fascias need to be replaced or not.

Next it’s a check in on another home expecting a new admission and how their day is going, making plans for another one tomorrow and speaking to a couple of new starters in the home who I completed inductions for a couple of weeks ago to see how they are doing.

As the afternoon moves on, I’m catching up on emails, talking to some of the team about how they complete day one inductions, being used as a Guinea Pig in their “can you spot what is wrong with this wheelchair practical exam” (and yes the lap belt clip comes apart when you tug on it).

It's nearly time to leave, so it’s now time to catch up with the leadership team, and share any major updates. I go through where we are at with the major estates issues/purchases, we talk about the new starters and those waiting to start. I take away a list of questions to chase up for the team and then it’s back home (more of the Poppy War Trilogy, you really have to read it) and just in time to join the weekly DCHC directors meeting.

We spend 90 minutes going over issues like the fair cost of care, this week's locality meetings, current hospital discharge quality and sharing our updates. Then it’s 6pm, and time for tea!! We all sit down and talk about our day, and then my favourite moment…. Getting changed into slacks and fluffy socks, a final look on emails and approving a funding submission and it’s 7pm, there’s a couple of messages in the evening from some of the team to reply to, and then the Apprentice to get angry at!! Alarm set for the morning ready for a run, and another day.