Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 27 November
November 27, 2020
Today is the culmination of this week’s build up to our 2020 star awards. As you know, we normally celebrate these awards with 250+ colleagues and friends at a big party. But, this year, our plans have had to change several times to fit with the Covid restrictions at the time. I hope you were able to watch the awards at lunchtime today and, if you haven’t yet managed to do so, please find time to have a look when you can.
The awards recognise just some of the many hundreds of brilliant people who make up our fantastic organisation. There are stories of great team work, kindness and innovation in today’s ceremony. Every single nominee, all our shortlisted colleagues, and the winners had one thing in common – determination to do what is right, and going above and beyond the call of duty to get there. Whether that was in leading a service to develop better use of digital technology, learning and developing others, or standing alongside colleagues, patients and families to provide essential care and support. We have much to be proud of and thankful for.
We know we are not perfect in every way. There is always more we can and must do to further improve our consistent standards of care, the quality of treatment we provide and our ability to work with others to wrap care around patients. And we are an ambitious organisation that will always strive to push ourselves to do even better. But I hope that today is a chance to reflect on our achievements together, recognising the valuable contribution that each of us can and does make to the patients and communities we serve. We are one team at SWB and we will continue to succeed and make positive changes because we do so together.
Here is the list of the final winners announced today – congratulations to everyone!
Carly Aston-Mead – Maternity Clinical Educator
Today being our annual awards ceremony doesn’t mean we stop our weekly star of the week, so, well done to Carly Aston-Mead, Midwifery Clinical Educator for receiving the Trust’s award this week. Carly was nominated by a colleague for supporting all midwives and members of the wider multi-disciplinary team to complete their mandatory training. Carly put all of the information together to enable virtual learning as well as facilitating the face to face training for basic life support and newborn resuscitation. Carly is always there to help her colleagues. Thank you, Carly.
Fluper Trooper Hayley Griffiths
I am doing one final request to ask you to get your flu vaccination, if you have not yet done so. Thousands of you have had the jab to protect yourselves, your families and your patients – thank you. But there remain a significant number who haven’t. Let me be very clear – flu is serious. You may think you will be ok if you get it but you may not be. And of course, you can pass it on to others who are more vulnerable. Flu can kill. We need you to get the protection now so that we can begin our Covid vaccination programme and have a clean break between receiving the flu vaccine and the Covid vaccine. Let’s get this done. Find your flu-per trooper and get the jab before Monday when the campaign will close. Thanks to Hayley Griffiths who took our Abba theme to the next level in getting dressed up whilst running her clinic.
Covid-19 continues to test us, and I know there will be mixed views about the tier arrangements following this current lockdown. Case numbers in hospital beds are beginning to level off but it really is too early to tell whether or when we will see a sustained decrease. My advice remains that all of us must continue to abide by the current lockdown restrictions and the tier 3 rules. Household mixing indoors remains the primary cause of transmission in the community. Our infection prevention and control guidance must also be followed at all times to minimise hospital / healthcare transmission. Patients will be rightly concerned at the risk of catching Covid-19 in hospital unless we can assure them we do everything we can to reduce this risk. Outbreaks also lead to wards being unable to accept new admissions putting patients at risk of receiving the right care.
Your lateral flow test kits are on the way to frontline staff, with them all being distributed by next Wednesday. You can find information in the Covid bulletin on how to do your test and where to record your results.
Today we launch the vote for the QIHD poster competition! All the entries are now available for you to view. Thank you to everyone who submitted a poster. Just like with the star awards, it is incredible to see the range of excellent improvement initiatives that have been implemented right across the Trust. You can follow this link to see all the posters and cast your vote for your favourites. There are great prizes for the winners so make sure you have your say and recognise your colleagues in their efforts to improve services, care and treatment.
I end this week’s message on a sad note. One of our worthy star award winners today was Clair Millard, who sadly passed away suddenly earlier this year. I know Clair is dearly missed by all her team and we remember her family and friends today. We also learned recently of the sudden passing of valued colleague Carrie-Ann Thomas who died on 14th November. Carrie-Ann worked as a community matron within iCares and was a well-respected colleague and an extremely talented nurse. She will be sadly missed and our thoughts are with her team members and of course her family who are coming to terms with this sudden loss.
David Carruthers
Acting Chief Executive