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Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 21 April

April 21, 2023

It’s now nearly a week since the end of industrial action by our non-consultant doctors. Although a challenging time, it was heartening see so many of you working out of your comfort zone to maintain safe care for our patients – for that I am grateful.

There is a lot we can learn from our experiences during industrial action – the hot debrief took place earlier this week and highlighted a few things:

  • Better integrated working with specialities and the emergency departments
  • The welfare checks to wards and departments plus the extended hours for catering was well received
  • Improved patient flow and community capacity
  • Visibility of senior leaders was appreciated
  • Clinical groups felt able to cover their in-patient area well and medical teams acting down were more familiar with their roles second time round
  • The availability of Unity Floor walkers and IT support 24/7 was appreciated.

By all indications it seems industrial action by healthcare staff is likely to continue for a while and as a Trust we have to plan accordingly and ensure that each period of action is smoother than the previous one. We will replicate the things that have worked well and do everything we can to make improvements where things didn’t go as well as expected.  The Board are very aware that future periods of industrial action will rely on discretionary effort from a number of people and this cannot and will not, be taken for granted.

Please do feed in your reflections to your managers. It is important that we maintain and support the wellbeing of everyone during these challenging times. If there is anything more we could do, then please let us know.

Our Day Nursery at Sandwell recently had an OFSTED inspection and has been rated Good in all areas.

The inspectors called out how the children are confident and form strong attachments with staff, which helps them to feel safe and secure. They also highlighted the opportunity allowed for outdoor learning which has seen the children grow a variety of organic produce in their garden area, including tomatoes, lettuce and carrots.

This news is fantastic for the organisation and for the Day Nursery team, led by Emma Collier who work incredibly hard to ensure all the children are happy and confident. The Day Nursery provides a unique service for our colleagues and our wider population and is a great example of delivering on our strategic objectives.

  • People – to cultivate and sustain happy, productive and engaged staff and
  • Population – to work seamlessly with our partners to improve lives.

Congratulations to the team. The report will be released on the OFSTED website in due course.