Hello everyone
Another Friday is upon us!
The big event this week has been our Annual General Meeting. As always, it was another successful event and I was delighted to see a mixture of staff, stakeholders and patients in attendance. I also want to say a big thankyou to our key note speaker award-winning performer, writer, presenter and broadcast journalist Juliette Burton. Her passionate story telling of her own experiences of NHS services was funny, moving, honest, and truly inspirational to us all!
Looking back over the last 12 months at the AGM brought it home just how hard you have all been working and there have been some amazing achievements. There are too many to mention so do make sure you check out our Annual Review which was launched at the event. It’s a really well produced summary with load and loads of examples of the good work we are doing.
When I took up the role of Acting Chief Executive, I said that one of my priorities was staff wellbeing. Our Well Team have been doing a fantastic job holding a series of market places and events to promote ways to help staff emotionally, financially and physically. I know that the relaxation massage sessions by our very own bank staff member Catherine Connolly were particularly popular. Please don’t forget that ‘Stoptober’ begins on Tuesday next week. This is a perfect opportunity to stop smoking and our Well Team are on hand to help you with this. You can contact the team by emailing wellteam@nhs.uk.
Next week sees the start of ‘Speak Out’ Month. This is a month to highlight the role of our Staff Guardian Jane Butcher. Jane is independent to the Trust and her role is to make sure that people feel safe and confident enough to raise any concerns they may have about patient safety. All staff should be able to speak out about their worries without fear of it affecting relationships in the workplace. Jane will be out and about on all sites throughout the month so do keep an eye out for more information and please take the time to have a chat with her to find out more! The particular campaign this year is around the hashtag #SpeakOuttoMe so look out for that!
Finally, you may have noticed that this week we have changed our social media handles. This is so that they are easier to remember and consistent across all channels. Search for us @ELHT_NHS!
Have a great weekend. Thank you as ever for your great work.
Damian
(Damian WAS going to tell a joke about chemistry, but all the best ones Argon!)