Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 15 December 2017
December 15, 2017
Elaine Newell, Chief Nurse – Toby Lewis is away
Hopefully by now you have all thawed out and recovered from the snowy weather earlier in the week that made getting to work and being at work so much more difficult than normal.
It came as no surprise to me that we had a great team effort right across the Trust in dealing with the impact of the snow. One of the characteristics of our Trust is the willingness of you all to go above and beyond the call of duty and I have been touched this week by many stories of people who went to extraordinary lengths to keep the majority of our services running as normally as possible.
A particular shout out to the people who volunteered to offer immediate assistance in helping people get to work. The response to the call to arms was incredible and many staff members and their friends and family, the Fire Service as well as members of the public, collected nurses, doctors, and others from right across the Midlands and transported them home too. I can’t mention everyone individually but I did want to call out a few names. Of particular note, Dawn Hall worked her socks off throughout the day on Sunday (her day off), including coordinating responses to over 300 phone calls and getting 4×4 vehicles to help our community teams make vital visits to patients in their own homes. Terry Byrne was one of the many members of staff who came in during his day off and transported around 15 colleagues to and from work. I also want to mention outreach nurse Karen Gray; David Logan, Jay Akbar, Mohammed Amin, and Kevin Robinson from the general transport team; security helped people get their cars out of the snow and huge thanks to the effort of the grounds and garden team who cleared the snow.
We were overwhelmed by people’s generosity and willingness to help and I would like to extend my very genuine thanks to you all.
This week I have been involved in our internal taskforce meeting looking at new volunteering roles, supported by a new national organisation called HelpForce, as mentioned by Toby in his message two weeks ago. One of these roles is considering how we can best use volunteers to support patients with transport needs, most likely for those patients who are not eligible for our own patient transport service. Our experience of people’s generosity to help with transport during the adverse weather is a good indication that there will be people out there who are willing and able to volunteer and help our patients get to where they need to be to access our services more easily.
We expect to begin some of our new volunteer roles early in the new year so do let me know if you are keen to be involved, or contact our volunteer service directly.
Since commitment and service to the NHS is a theme of my message this week, I would also like to pay tribute to Angus Mackenzie who leaves this Trust after many dedicated years of service and leadership. Dr Mackenzie will be truly missed. He has served this Trust and his patients faithfully and the SWBH family can look back on his eminent career with gratitude and pride. I know you will join me in wishing him all the best for his retirement and thank him for his considerable contribution to our organisation.
The festivities are well and truly upon us. Our Christmas decorating competition has begun in earnest and this week we have had two beautiful carol services in City and Sandwell chapels and our catering team served up the first of their many Christmas lunches. Carolling continues on the wards over the next two weeks bringing cheer to patients and colleagues. I hope you will find time to join in some of these activities.
To everyone attending our charity Bollywood Ball tonight, have a great evening. Your ticket purchase is contributing to the many projects, equipment and updating of facilities supported by the charity so thank you and have a wonderful time!
Finally – Toby will return next week in time for his pre-Christmas message, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank you personally for your hard work, dedication and support this year and warmly wish you all a very peaceful (and restful) festive period.
Hello my name is…Elaine