Hello again. It has been a few weeks since I last posted and again a lot has happened in the Trust and this is a great opportunity to share some good news stories.
First of all we have had two more Breakfast with the Boss sessions. For those not familiar with the sessions, we invite a random selection of staff from across the Trust and entice them with croissants, tea, coffee and fresh orange juice. This provides an opportunity for staff to provide feedback on current issues affecting them at the Trust. In the first session Glen Palethorpe, Director of Governance, and I spent an hour receiving excellent feedback on what it feels like for staff at Dudley and what we could do to make our place of work even better. In our March session I was joined by Paul Harrison, Acting Chief Executive. Thank you to all those who attended and contributed to our get together.
One of the areas discussed at the first session was better collaboration between ward staff and mortuary staff to ensure we continue to provide dignity to our patients after death. The discussion at the session acted as the catalyst for Anthony in the mortuary team to meet with matrons to develop better understanding and actions to support best practice.
In our March session we had staff from Radiology who had identified frustrations from patients unable to have their telephone calls answered in a timely manner. Therefore, we have agreed to assist the team in looking at ways in which we can use technology to support a better service for patients when telephoning the department.
At the session in January the attendees raised issues relating to health and wellbeing initiatives for staff. I described in my first post that the Trust was having initial discussions with Action Heart as to whether the opening times of the gym could be extended and I requested your comments and feedback. I am pleased to say that following your positive feedback, the Trust, alongside Action Heart has agreed to fund the opening of the Gym from 7am until 9:30pm. We are waiting for the work to be completed in the next few weeks and when this is done we will communicate the first day for the opening times. Thank you all for your support with this!
I also had the great pleasure of attending my first Committed to Excellence Awards that took place on 16th March. The ceremony was a great success and congratulations to all those who were nominated. The event demonstrated the strength, dedication and excellence in our workforce.
This post also gives me an opportunity to say thank you to all staff for their commitment to mandatory training and appraisals. You are now demonstrating the best performance in over 12 months. This has been done following a period of unprecedented capacity pressures and your support is greatly appreciated.
Following the receipt of the staff survey results we have started our first staff survey focus groups. This is an opportunity for staff to articulate the feedback based on the staff survey both by staff group and also within your work area. I attended the focus group for nursing staff in medicine on Friday last week. Everyone who attended provided excellent feedback. The meeting was energetic and constructive and gave me the opportunity of where we can make a positive difference to our staff. Thank you all for your time and contributions.
Finally, thank you to you all for your continued commitment to high standards of care under challenging circumstances. Well done.
