Heartbeat: What do our executive directors get up to?

August 23, 2018

What is the life of an exec director like? Do they ever visit patients or frontline colleagues? Well, now you get a chance to see where they have been each month. During August, Trust HQ has had a new whiteboard installed with space for each executive director to share where they have been out and about that month.

The idea was first seen at a different large NHS Trust, where it has been in place for some months.

Kam Dhami, Director of Governance, said: “We wanted to push ourselves to make sure we are being visible within our organisation and in the wider community. We all have ‘open door’ approaches so that colleagues can come and talk to us whenever they need to, but we also wanted to share where we have been. It will help us to clearly see where there are gaps: Are some teams or services overlooked by us? Are we meeting and hearing from colleagues and patients as frequently as we should?”

Paula Gardner, Chief Nurse, is enjoying marking down her visits on the new whiteboard. She said: “It’s helping me keep track of where I have been and where I need to go. It also helps us work better as a team so we can drop into different services at different times, or join up and go together.”