Wow what a first week. I am Diane Wake your new Chief Executive and I am excited to be joining you all here at The Dudley Group, a high performing trust with a reputation for delivery. I’ve had to hit the ground running as Paul Harrison and the team had organised an action packed first week for me to get a good insight into the Trust. He didn’t tell me I’d need my trainers and an oxygen supply, oh and my PJs! 
I have seen committed passionate people who want to deliver the very best care and treatment for their patients all around the Trust. Seeing so many of you supporting the Red2Green initiative to end PJ paralysis on Wednesday was fabulous and such fun was being had while getting home a serious message. We know patients recover much faster and their well-being is improved if they can get dressed into their own clothes.
It was great to meet some of the GP leaders from the patch on my first day and I look forward to working closely with our GP colleagues to ensure people in Dudley get the very best care. I also met GP s again on Wednesday, at a formal part of the Multispecialty Community Provider (MCP) process, where GPs were meeting prospective partners for the MCP. A presentation made jointly by Paul Harrison and Tracy Taylor from Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust led to good debate and discussion around how we could develop the partnership between providers with our GP colleagues.
My first board meeting was on Thursday and it was interesting to hear from the medical division management team of Hassan Paraiso, Jo Newens and Julie Walklate who shared a frank presentation of the highlights and risks within their areas. We also signed off the business case for the Urgent Care Centre build works to put the UCC right next to ED to make for a better patient experience and more streamlined process. The work you are already well under way with for the Digital Trust and getting an electronic patient record is impressive and another opportunity to use technology to help you all to deliver great patient care.
Engaging with staff and patients is a real passion of mine and I want to make sure everyone knows I have an open door policy. I want people to be open and honest about everything we do here as that is the only way to learn and improve on our journey. I look forward to invitations from you to come and visit your areas and find out just how you deliver your services.
Anyway that’s enough from me for now but I will keep you posted of news and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible over the coming weeks.