Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 5 January
January 5, 2024
As we end the first week of January, we are entering the latter stage of the longest consecutive strike action ever taken in the history of the NHS.
This follows, of course, the non-consultant doctor strike action which took place for three days immediately before Christmas, which led to large number of appointments being postponed , significant impact of almost all routine care and unnecessary disruption for patients and colleagues.
Industrial action comes in the middle of the winter period where the NHS is already under significant pressure from factors such as seasonal illnesses including covid and flu and following the Christmas and New Year break. We have already seen an internal critical incident declared (and thankfully stood down) this week and I can predict that the Industrial action (and winter pressures) will continue to have a serious impact in the weeks after, as we recover services and deal with additional demand.
The executive team and I have done several walkabouts to our frontline staff this week and have been humbled by the resilience and strength of character being shown by staff working tirelessly against this continued pressure. We have seen kindness and compassion , for example, Dr Naqvi has been running some consultant wellbeing sessions, badged as ‘samosa support sessions’ during this period, and other colleagues have gone above and beyond their normal working commitment to help cover gaps and maintain safe, patient care.
Given this backdrop and the increasing pressures put onto our workforce, I can only imagine then, that the next topic I talk about, will frustrate some and cause some despondency amongst others. We had a very disappointing response rate to the annual NHS Survey, being one of the Trusts in the lowest percentile for responses in the country.
Whilst we communicate and promote all of the surveys as regularly and visibly as possible, we remain, as always, at the hands of our line managers, who have a vital role in staff engagement by encouraging their teams to complete the survey. We need to turn this around. The next Pulse Staff Survey is now open for staff to complete, this is our quarterly survey that helps us make changes at a local level. The responses we receive are imperative to create opportunities for change and improvements for working life within this Trust.
Yesterday, James Fleet, Interim Chief People Officer, and I held an on-line Line Managers briefing to discuss the importance of this survey and the role they take in ensuring that their teams feel happy to complete it and have the time to do so. I am delighted that there has been lots of very positive feedback from that session with over 260 colleagues joining the conversation. It highlighted to us that our Line Managers clearly like to be engaged with as an inclusive and extended management group. Our promise to you is that we will now establish this as a group to come together regularly to consider and discuss key agendas and issues.
Can I ask all Line Managers that if they haven’t don’t so already schedule some time in all team meetings for staff to complete the survey (just 5 minutes) and to talk about how the results will be used to make local improvements for staff. Your support in improving responses to the survey will help enable real change to benefit your teams.
The survey closes on Wednesday 31 January, there is no need to search for an email – there is a generic link here so it can be accessed on any device and can be located on Connect.
Finally, I would encourage you to visit the Midland Met Hubs areas which are being held at Sandwell and City this month. With MMUH opening this year, the hubs will showcase live news and updates of all what’s happening in MMUH and retained estate. Hubs will also have regular drop in themed sessions/special events throughout the coming months. More updates to follow.
Kind regards,
Richard.