Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 26 April

April 26, 2024

Dear colleagues,

Earlier this week, we held our annual leader’s conference, where quite rightly, the topic of conversation was Midland Met and how we will deliver a successful first year. It was fantastic to have so many of our senior leaders in one room, focussed on the biggest thing in this Trust’s journey to date. In his welcome speech, Dr Anderson, our Chief Medical Officer, asked for a show of hands as to who had never opened a new hospital before – almost everyone, other than some of our partners from the New Hospitals Programme and our move partners Healthcare Relocations, raised their hands. This is new for us all, a once in a career opportunity to be involved in a project of this scale, and one that we can all look back on at the end of our careers, knowing that we left something behind, that will benefit the people of Sandwell and West Birmingham for many years ahead.

I think the most popular phrase I heard from colleagues was ‘it feels so much more real now’ and that’s so true. This project has been going on for 17 years, and for the first time, we are able to announce the dates when we will be moving our patients into Midland Met. For those of you who were on TeamTalk on Wednesday, you would have heard our Managing Director for the Midland Met Programme Company, Rachel Barlow, talk about this, but if you missed it, the key dates you need to know are below.

That’s just 163 days until the first patient arrives through the doors of Midland Met – now, if that doesn’t make it feel more real, I am not sure what will. I know it’s incredibly busy, and lots is being asked of you all, but please continue to deliver those key things needed in order for us to successfully open Midland Met.

To quote a Billy Ocean song, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going,’ and this organisation is full of tough people. Focus on what I have said above – each and everyone of you is delivering a lasting legacy to our population – and I know for sure that I will look back on it with pride in years to come, and so should all of you.

Finally, we have just a few days until the Q1 pulse survey closes – and our response rate is currently at 34 per cent, so we have a little bit of work to do as we go in search of our target of 45 per cent.

If you haven’t yet completed your survey, please do take five minutes to complete it. You can access it via the link below – and you simply need to input your e-mail address to get access.

This is simply to authenticate you as a member of staff – it does not identify your answers.

Have a good weekend.

Richard