I am hoping colleagues have now seen the new arrangements for the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust (ELHT) Star Awards, which is the Trust’s annual ceremony held to reward and recognise colleagues for their work across our divisions, settings and services.
I know how much people love, value and look forward to the Star Awards and especially awards night itself.
As with many face to face events and celebrations, it has been cancelled a number of times and whilst I understand this might seem a small thing compared to those who have been unable to hold funerals or visit family and friends throughout the pandemic, it has nonetheless been very sad.
Last week I worked with colleagues from the Exec and Senior Leadership Group, as well as with the Chairman Professor Eileen Fairhurst, to make the unenviable and thoroughly disappointing decision to again cancel the ceremony this year.
I have said before, this particular cohort of nominations dates back to 2019 and people who nominated colleagues or have been nominated themselves have waited an awful long time to find out the results.
I promised to find a solution that meant we could celebrate, recognise and reward people – and announce the winners – even though we can’t do it in the traditional way.
And so next Tuesday, September 21, myself and the Chairman, along with Execs and key people from the Star Awards Committee, will host a Teams Brief ‘Star Awards Special’ online via Microsoft Teams and I promise you there is a tremendous amount of work underway to make it as brilliant as it can possibly be.
You can all join us – either live at 3.45pm via this link – or using the same link afterwards to watch the recording. If you can watch live and add to the event that would be great and we’ll be using the chatbox as always to capture your comments and congratulations.
Following the announcement of the winners we have then declared Thursday, September 23, as ‘Star Awards Day’ across the Trust. Execs, the Chairman and other leaders will be heading out to various locations to present the trophies to the winners and celebrate with tea and cakes. If you win you’ll be invited to one of these on Wednesday so we don’t spoil the surprise. Then we’ll capture of this in next week’s staff magazine ‘…Other News’.
I know it won’t be the same but I am confident it will be a fitting and enjoyable way to recognise colleagues.
I do want to be pragmatic though about as many things as possible and this doesn’t mean we won’t do anything face to face. I just want to be sure we’re being sensible and weighing up risks alongside infection prevention control, patient safety and the need to try and return to normal.
For this reason, I have given my blessing to the team nominated for a HSJ Award to attend the event next week (this is a different ceremony to the other HSJ Awards we have been nominated in, which take place in a couple of months).
We are absolutely delighted to be competing in the Best Use of Integrated Care and Partnership Working category, in an entry submitted by colleagues who have been working together as part of the innovative virtual Covid ward initiative. Tony McDonald blogged more about this here if you missed it.
My point in mentioning this is to avoid any mixed messaging and the opportunity for some to bemoan the cancellation of the Star Awards when others are able to attend similar ceremonies. The difference is that the Star Awards involved a lot of colleagues and with the staffing pressures we are facing and dealing with each and every day, we just couldn’t risk the chance of an outbreak affecting up to 300 people, who might subsequently be unable to work.
I hope the difference is clear.
We are still asking all colleagues, visitors, patients and carers to gel their hands before entering any of our settings, to wear a face mask and to socially distance where possible. I make no apology for this and whilst some people have retorted that ‘they no longer need to wear a mask in Tesco’ I would encourage us to push back and tell them about the different risks being managed in a health care setting as opposed to a supermarket.
And lastly, to this final point: no matter what is happening or what we are facing in our home or work lives, it costs nothing to be kind to each other. Whilst we strive to be effective we don’t need to constantly challenge or question each other without good reason or push beyond what is reasonable to expect. ELHT often describes itself as a family and I am proud that we strive for compassion in everything we do.
Please, today and in the future, if you see someone who is not being themselves or looks out of sorts ask them if they’re OK and then listen, really listen, to what they say. It’s OK to not be OK and we have a range of support in place to help anyone who needs it.
Take care,
Martin