Interviewer

Could I start by asking your name?

Keir Lewis

Hello, my name is Keir Lewis

Interviewer

And Keir. Could I ask how old you are?

Keir Lewis

I’m 54 years old.

Interviewer

And could I ask which Friends Group we are talking about today?

Keir Lewis

So I’m delighted to be part of the Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends, and that’s a place in South West Wales.

Interviewer

Thank you. So could I ask what got you caught up into the League of Friends?

Keir Lewis

Gosh, well a little bit about myself, I guess.  I am a senior clinician in the local NHS and a Health Board. I’m a professor of respiratory medicine in the NHS. Also I’m a lecturer of research at Swansea University. What got me involved, I think is a combination of 30 years of clinical experience, listening to patient stories, enjoying those patient stories, and being humbled by patient stories. And that narrative of capturing the human element sometimes gets lost in the wider NHS when you are measuring outcomes, and waiting figures, and waiting lists, and mortality rates. And what I’ve learned is working with expert patients, and working with expert groups to capture that energy, and capture that expertise makes the NHS a better organisation, and it makes me a better doctor. And coupled with that, I’m living in the local area, our neighbour, a forceful impact of nature, shall we say.

Keir Lewis

She invited me, chosen from a shortlist of one, to come, and do something with my experience, and represent the Health Board, the NHS, the Trust to the League of Friends, and join those bridges. And since working with them, I’ve seen the change, and the challenges on both sides. But more importantly, I’ve seen the opportunities of working within an organisation, and joining the energy, and the sheer love people have for the healthcare that they receive, and the loyalty, and using that to the greater good for the greater impact going forward. And making the NHS listen more to those it’s supposed to serve.

Interviewer

So during your career, had you come across Leagues of Friends in other places?

Keir Lewis

Yes. I’ve worked in London. I’ve worked at various national bodies and at national levels. I’ve worked across South Wales. I’ve been involved at a League of Friends, at a distance, at Cardiff, also in Swansea. And I’ve worked with national groups actually in Westminster and National Charities. But Amman Valley is a very local place. I like, I’m one of the trustees where you are involved at a much more local level, and you can see impact in a very, very small cottage hospital that we are delighted to be sitting in now with some amazing history, which I’m sure you will find out

Interviewer

You’ve got that big history of knowing bits about League of Friends all around the country. Have the League of Friends here been as you expected them to be?

Keir Lewis

Yes, and no. So there are usual people in the League of Friends who have been part of the NHS for many years. There are other people who are good at committees, there are people who’ve got insight. But what I’ve noticed about this League of Friends is the passion.  The passion for the local hospital and the drive to save the local hospital, and even save services here. And I am trying to almost harness that passion in a way that has greater impact. And my job sometimes I feel is, well, this is the way you integrate, this is the way you capture a Chief Executive’s attention when they’ve got 28 other people queuing up outside their door. I’m delighted also, I started clinics in this area, in this particular hospital only once a month. And it took me a long time to get these clinics. But it’s important because we’re using national directives.

Keir Lewis

For example, our Health Board believes in something called Transforming Clinical Services. And the League of Friends understands that, which means moving from hospitals to communities. Most people, nearly all people I’ve ever met, want to be treated in the community close to home. Can this be done in using these small hospitals? That’s one thing. The League of Friends here is active. It’s got funds, and sometimes they feel that they’re not being listened to by the Health Board. And that’s a big frustration. And so providing that bridge where you can harness that energy, harness that enthusiasm, and that sheer love to the positive, I feel that in this particular League of Friends, and we need people like this, we need the League of Friends to work within the NHS, and make the NHS a better place. There’s a real need. This isn’t just a talking shop and they can achieve great things.

Interviewer

So since you’ve been involved in the League of Friends, what sort of things have they done? Have there been any particular activities where you’ve thought, I didn’t expect them to do that, but hey, they’ve done it.

Keir Lewis

So this summer they had, and last year, the garden fete, an open day in a hospital, and two years ago, there were probably two or three hundred people there.  This year there were over a thousand different people. They had a band, they had bouncy castles, they had stalls. People were bringing in plants, crochet.  Being in Wales, we had the Welsh choir, the male voice choir, we had a magician on stage,  five-a-side football for kids. And it got so big the second year, this particular summer, that we had to go down to a local park, and work with the local council to get a space big enough. And that tells me that there’s an untapped enthusiasm, and untapped support that is now being tapped into. That was a great day. Took my own children there, two boys, and they had a great time. And apart from when the magician asked who could eat the hottest sweet on the stage, and seeing the faces of my kids as they tried to eat these curried sweets, that’s the kind of thing “are we insured for this? Ah, let’s keep doing it.”  The other thing I’m being delighted by is this particular group, they wanted to plant bulbs and do painting of railing, and they’ve been working with some frustration with the local Health Board to do this. And in the end they said it’s inclement weather.  We just went on, and we planted those bulbs, and we are now going to have a bloom of flowers in four months time.

Interviewer

Excellent. So do you think there’s still a place for groups like Leagues of Friends to support the NHS?

Keir Lewis

Well, I hope I just explained that, and I hope I give good examples. They’ve made real donations. So as well as mobilising a local community, holding a local NHS to account, bringing in managers, bringing in workforce development, in this very room to demand to speak to them, it was the energy that got me. Raising money, making awareness for children, and all the people in this community. They bought me, or I applied for funding for a Spirometer, which is a piece of equipment, about 6,000 pounds to monitor people’s lung tests. And instead of bringing people to hospital, and putting them in a laboratory, and making people scared, breathing into machines, and running, you know, queueing up, trying to find a car parking space 15 miles away, they come here where there’s plenty of parking, and it’s a portable machine with a new technology, and we are using it to do tests on people in the local community.

Keir Lewis

We couldn’t have done that without the League of Friends. The money is so tight now in parts of the NHS, but there’s a donation. It was in the local paper. And that also as well as helping people who were very breathless, and disabled, literally not need to travel. That practical thing for my clinics, by putting it on Facebook, by bringing it into the public domain, and using social media, the hits that we had, and even the comments down the local pub to me saying, “oh, you’ve got a blowing test.” How do you know the League of Friends did it? The League of Friends publicised it. The League of Friends pushed it. The League of Friends bought it. And that’s the energy, which I’m delighted just to be part of.

 

Interviewer

Thank you. Now, when you knew you were going to be speaking to me today, was there anything you wanted to tell me that you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

Keir Lewis

Where I think the League of Friends can grow nationally, and pulling more people from Wales into that national group as an opportunity. I think joining up more, capturing the voices, capturing this history now, and using your project, and other, to raise the awareness. A lot of doctors, I dare say think our League of Friends is just a bunch of middle-aged women who might buy a new chair for people who are disabled. It’s far, far more than that, and they don’t even know it’s there. And now they should.