CEO Today UK Awards 2021

93 CEO TODAY UNITED KINGDOM AWARDS 2021 Heal thcare community-based satellite facilities, but we also manage a number of hospital main renal units. In addition to fully managed nurse led dialysis, we provide a facilities and equipment service for those Trusts that wish to retain full control of clinical service delivery. Diaverum is a dedicated service provider: we do not manufacture equipment or products. This independence brings important benefits to our patients and NHS partners. It means we can select the optimal technical solutions for patient care, and also that our goals are fully aligned with our NHS peers. Our overriding objective is identical to that of our NHS partners - to enhance quality of life for renal patients. Over the past 10 years we have invested heavily in new facilities, equipment and services, with the sole aim to provide a better service for UK renal patients. We have built a large number of new state of the art renal centres, providing environments that are highly functional yet warm and homely. Our expansion has enabled many dialysis patients to travel far less to receive their treatment, giving them back valuable time and enhancing quality of life. At the heart of our service are our amazing clinical teams: the nurses and dialysis support workers that deliver high quality, personalised care each day. As our operation has grown in size and scope, we have become an ever more attractive employer for healthcare professionals wishing to develop their skills and careers. A winning culture We are the leading independent renal service provider in the UK. All business is secured via competitive tender and over the past five years we have a tender success rate exceeding 75%. Moreover, we are the only provider in the UK never to have lost a contract. Mick attributes this success to a “winning culture”. He explains: “We do not have any technical or financial advantages over our competitors. What we have is a culture – built up over the past decade – that is very appealing to our customer base and which is difficult to copy. This winning culture is made up of several complementary elements including: a deep understanding of our customers motivations, alignment of goals with our customers, a truly patient-centric view of the world, a can-do attitude, and a flexibility to adapt our services locally to individual customer needs. All of this is demonstrated every day via the service we provide across the UK, delivered by a team of wonderful, engaged and professional nurses and caregivers”. Mick explains how authenticity is key to success in the renal sector: “The UK renal sector is relatively small and distinct, with close relationships across the NHS network. To be successful over the long term requires the delivery of truly excellent care. Good words and strategies are not enough – your performance as a service provider is there for all to see, with nowhere to hide. To be successful you have to deliver - this is a great feature of the renal sector and directly benefits patients”. Meeting the Covid challenge Dialysis patients are extremely vulnerable to Covid infection. Yet, the life sustaining dialysis service had to continue throughout the pandemic, with patients unable to shield to the same degree as other vulnerable groups. At the outset of the pandemic we quickly developed a detailed Covid contingency plan including more than 150 measures, which was implemented systematically across all clinics. Managing Covid has been extremely challenging, but Mick says that his Diaverum colleagues can be proud of how they have navigated the crisis: “We have had the double challenge of protecting both our vulnerable patients and our frontline healthcare teams. I am so proud of my management teams, who have worked tirelessly – sometimes in the face of personal Covid related tragedy – to protect our patients and colleagues. From sourcing the best PPE available, to maintaining constant formal and informal support for our frontline teams, they have worked marvels”. “As for our frontline colleagues working to maintain a high quality dialysis service throughout the worst of the pandemic – their professionalism, perseverance and compassion is astounding and truly humbling”. While all at Diaverum are really looking forward to a post-Covid world, we can look back and feel very proud of the role we played to protect a very vulnerable group of people and continue to deliver life sustaining dialysis. In addition to maintaining our services, we also opened several new clinics at the height of the pandemic, and have provided additional support to our NHS partners including provision of dialysis at intensive care units and supporting with the roll out of the Covid vaccination programme. Mick concludes that “crises are good tests of organisational resilience, and for a healthcare provider the Covid pandemic has been the ultimate test. The Diaverum community has faced hardship and tragedy over the past year, but we emerge from the pandemic intact and in many ways stronger than ever”. www.diaverum.com