Friday Message from Lesley Writtle: 13 September
September 13, 2024
Hello, I am Lesley Writtle, Deputy Chair of the Trust and every few weeks I hijack the CEO message so you can learn more about the role I play and the role of the Non-Executive Directors.
This week, I was delighted to present September’s winner of the ARC Star Award to Kirk Johnson, Senior Contracts Manager in Procurement. Kirk was really very surprised as I quietly snuck into the procurement team office. The ARC Star is awarded to a member of our Trust every month, who displays the Trust values of ambition, respect, and compassion in their everyday lives. Kirk was awarded for his ambition and respect towards his colleagues as procurement can be a hard process to follow and Kirk goes above and beyond to ensure both internal and external stakeholders understand the needs of the patients we care for. He really impressed me with his care and time to make sure the clinical voice is heard. Thank you Kirk, it was a pleasure to present you with the award and well done. If you would like to nominate someone for an award, click here.
Whilst out and about I also spent some time with colleagues from logistics. Rob on reception in stores was fantastic thanks for the chat and I will visit again. I also met with the uniform team and some of our porters at Sandwell Hospital. There was a definite air of positivity about the move to MMUH, however I appreciate that there are still some concerns as staff across the Trust have worked here for some time now and moving to a new hospital can be quite daunting and overwhelming, plus you have some very special memories of the place. I understand and can relate to this completely from my time at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and if you are feeling overwhelmed, I would encourage you to chat with your team or speak to your line manager.
Along with Acting Chief Finance Officer, Simon Sheppard, I also visited Critical Care colleagues at Sandwell who like many others will be moving to MMUH. This team has been working collaboratively with their counterparts at City Hospital and were really looking forward to new working environment. I was also able to see the new Omnicell units our new medicine management system which will see the Trust use the new Omnicell Automatic Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs) and smart carts across the Trust estate.
Whilst on all the visits this week staff were keen to ensure that they had an opportunity to capture memories at both Sandwell and City before they move to the new hospital. I know that the Communications Team have been working on a way to share memories and that will be launched very soon.
On Tuesday afternoon we held the 2023/24 Trust Annual General Meeting, it was great to see members of public and staff attend the first in-person AGM since 2019. I want to say a big thank you to our guest presenters from Stroke Services , Sarah Oley and Clair Finnemore who gave an excellent update on stroke decoupling and what the move to MMUH will mean to them and members of our very own YouthSpace group, Ruqiya, Bill and Raeann, who gave a wonderful, uplifting presentation on the work that they have been involved in. If you didn’t manage to get to the AGM but have any questions you would like to ask, please email Daniel.conway4@nhs.net.
Finally, we heard at Trust Board this week that the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) National Steering Group has approved our application for Veteran Aware accreditation, which was the 200th application and marks a significant milestone in the national programme. NHS Veteran Aware is an accreditation programme designed to support NHS trusts in understanding and meeting the needs of the Armed Forces community and seeks to deliver better health and wellbeing for the whole of the Armed Forces community
I would like to thank all Armed Forces Champions that were involved in gaining this accreditation.
Have a good week
Lesley