Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 6 December

December 6, 2024

Dear colleagues,

Firstly, thank you to those of you who joined me in the Winter Garden yesterday afternoon for the official Midland Met Christmas tree light switch on and what a wonderful event it was.

It was lovely to be able to welcome back our first baby born in Midland Met, Mona Lisa, and her parents Semhu and Yonas, who did the important job of pressing the big red button to light up the two fantastic trees that we have in situ on level 5 and thank you to the now independent Your City and Metropolitan Hospitals Charity for their support with these.

As I stood and enjoyed the entertainment, I was reflecting on yet another first – our first Christmas in this wonderful building. Midland Met is very special – few hospitals have a unique space where staff, visitors and patients can come together, like they did last night – and what made it even more special, was when I glanced up and saw patients enjoying the festivities from their rooms as they continued their recovery.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to put this event together and I am sure it’s the first of many exciting things to take place in the Winter Garden.

The tree even made ITV news – you can watch the footage here (scroll to the end, past the weather update).

Yesterday, I circulated an update to agile working. As you will know, based on your feedback, the executive team and I have been reviewing how we use the agile working space at Midland Met. The building was designed to make the most of the clinical space, after all, providing excellent patient care is at the forefront of what we do. However, I do know that we need to ensure that you have the space you need to work effectively, and I hope that the information which was shared provides some clarity. Yes, this is new, and it is going to take us some time to get used to, but I believe the changes we have made will make things better for you – but we do have to embrace change and learn to work within our new environment and support each other to do so.

Please let me clarify a few things, based on feedback I have received off the back of yesterday’s email:

1. Operational managers are essential to the safe and effective running of our services. I see these colleagues as part of the multi-disciplinary team and are they are absolutely able to work from and in Midland Met.
2. We do need to ensure that we make the most of the purpose-built spaces we have at the City and Sandwell Health Campuses – these have been re-configured to provide ‘home zones’ for each clinical group and support services – if you don’t need to work at Midland Met – please utilise these spaces. However, if you do want to visit from time to time or need to attend meetings – there is room for you. You can book a space in one of ‘generic zones’ – which you will find on levels 3,4 and 5. I can also recommend the Winter Garden as a perfect space to meet colleagues and do some work.
3. I can’t stress enough that I don’t want to see services and teams making their own signs to try and claim areas that have not been assigned to them. In this organisation, no one or no team is more important than another. Two of our values are respect and compassion – and some of the stories I have heard are not reflective of these in the slightest. The Trust leadership team will be doing some walkabouts and speaking to teams about how they are finding things and will act when they see inappropriate behaviour – I thank you in advance for your support on this.

Finally, I break up today for a couple of weeks, with Rachel Barlow stepping into provide cover as acting chief executive. So as such, this is my final Friday message before Christmas and my last but one before I depart this wonderful organisation.

I will be back for a few days before I finish and look forward to seeing many of you to say thank you and goodbye, but for now, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

2024 has been a pivotal year for this organisation and I know that you can all look ahead of 2025 with excitement and optimism.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Richard.