Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 24 June
June 24, 2022
I was so pleased to see this week that we have been able to support health care services in Ukraine by donating some supplies (gowns and continence consumables) that are surplus to requirements. With thanks to our procurement and supplies team who have worked closely with Dr Tania Herbert, a GP in Coventry and the West Midlands Coordinator for Medical Aid Ukraine to get this arrangement sorted. The lorryload of goods, packaged and loaded with help from our kind colleagues in receipts and distribution, left City Hospital on Monday and will be of great use to clinicians who are working in the most challenging of circumstances.
Our Trust Annual General Meeting takes place on Wednesday 6 July, 4pm – 5.30pm – everyone is welcome! This year we are once again holding this as an online meeting. Although our IPC guidelines are now relaxed the number of people with COVID-19 in the community and testing positive in our hospitals, seems to be on the increase and, as a healthcare provider, it is sensible for us to be cautious and avoid an event that could spread the infection. The benefits of a virtual meeting, are of course, that people can join from wherever they are and I would encourage you all to join us and hear about the Trust’s achievements during the year which by the way are all down to you, our fantastic workforce. You will hear about our financial performance and the regeneration opportunities that we are seizing, in partnership with others, so that the communities in the areas surrounding Midland Met can benefit. And there is an opportunity to ask any questions of the Trust Board. You can register for the MS Teams meeting here.
Preparations continue to progress for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Many colleagues are playing their part in this sporting event with clinical and medical support as well as volunteering to welcome the spectators and athletes. The Games will bring people from across the world to Birmingham and Sandwell, to enjoy the various sporting events taking place. As well as sport, the Commonwealth Games has a cultural programme and City Hospital is very proud to host an arts project, Abundance, which is a beautiful garden play space on the grassed areas in front of the Birmingham Treatment Centre. Abundance was created by Spectra, a neuro diverse arts organisation, in partnership with Your Trust Charity and its grand opening is tomorrow from 1pm. To attend the opening shows tomorrow please register here. Massive thanks to everyone who made this happen including our estates team and the BTC management team. The garden is open up to 3 September so please do pay a visit.
Next week we move into a new month and during July we will, once more, invite you all to complete our regular Pulse quarterly survey. Thank you to everyone who has completed these surveys over the past year. The surveys are important. They often come around quickly but hearing how you feel about this organisation is so important. These surveys will only take five minutes to complete – and you should be being given the time to complete them. They are deliberately short and enable us to check, on a regular basis, whether the things we are doing against our “People” strategic objective (one of our three Ps) are making a difference. We don’t expect to see change happen overnight but hope that through the investment in things like our new car parks, our health and wellbeing support and additional recruitment to fill vacancies, you are supported in your daily work. Please complete the survey when it drops in your inbox or if you receive a paper copy – through regular feedback we will learn how to make things better. It is an important part of our “Speak Up” programme.
As always – thank you.
Dinah McLannahan, Chief Finance Officer
Richard Beeken is away