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Weekly message from
the Chief Executive

Friday 26 August 2022

Hello,

I want to start my message this week by saying thank you to colleagues who will be working over the Bank Holiday weekend to care for our patients. The nature of our job means that sometimes we have to spend weekends and Bank Holidays away from our friends and families to benefit others, but please know your efforts will make a real difference to our patients – for this I am extremely thankful and appreciative.

For those who will be having an extended break this weekend, I hope you enjoy the opportunity to relax and recharge.

A focus on discharge 

This week at the staff briefing I spoke in detail about our focus on improving discharge performance as part of our Patient First programme. This will involve a concentrated effort on getting 40 per cent of patients discharged before midday, as set out in our Patient First Breakthrough Objective.  If you were unable to attend the staff briefing I would encourage you to watch it back here – during the event I spoke about all the actions we are taking to enhance the timely discharge of patients, which include taking a Patient First approach, hosting regular Multi-Agency Discharge Events (MADE), working closely with our community partners and re-designing the Trust’s discharge approach.  Discharge should be seen as one of our most important pieces of work, particularly as we move towards winter, and I want to thank everyone who continues to prioritise efforts to help us free up beds and take pressure off colleagues in the Emergency Department.

A special honour for Eloise Brett

Yesterday I was delighted to present our Learning Disability Liaison Nurse Eloise Brett with a prestigious Cavell Star Award. Eloise won the prize for promoting equality in healthcare and ensuring a positive experience for our patients with learning disabilities and autism. This is fantastic recognition for all the incredible work Eloise has done since joining the Trust six years ago. Congratulations Eloise – we are all so proud of you! 

Reflecting on a productive year 

Next month we will be hosting our Annual Members’ Meeting which gives us all an opportunity to reflect on your hard work over the last 12 months, during which we have achieved so much.  I am looking forward to delivering my review of the year and talking about the range of improvements taking place across the Trust. Please join me on Thursday 15 September from 6pm in the Below Deck Dining Room -  please register in advance here.

Patients benefit from new MRI scanner

There’s been good news for our patients this week as we opened a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner on site. Located outside the Estates and Facilities building, the scanner will allow hundreds of patients to benefit from vital scans every month and help us meet the demand for services. Thanks to colleagues from the Imaging Department who worked so quickly and efficiently to get the new scanner up and running in record time! 

Staff Briefing

Thank you to all colleagues who joined me at the staff briefing this week; as usual you can watch back the session in full at the link below.

Please also keep an eye out for updates on how we will look to facilitate these sessions differently in future. 

Next session:

I will be hosting the next briefing on Wednesday 31 August at 12 noon.

Celebrating your colleagues

I hope you saw my message earlier this week about our latest monthly award winners. Congratulations again to the Catering Department and Lelete Holson-Patterson, Clinical Sister, Byron Ward, for winning Team of the Month and Employee of the Month respectively. Don’t forget that you can celebrate the hard work of your colleagues by nominating them for an award – just fill out the short form online.

And finally

Congratulations to members of the Communications Team who have been shortlisted in the NHS Communicate Awards 2022. This is in the ‘Communications Team Health and Wellbeing Award’ category, which highlights the contribution that communications makes to the successful implementation and delivery of health and wellbeing initiatives and programmes for staff.

The Communications Team is one of eight battling for the prize which will be revealed at the online awards show on Thursday 15 September – good luck!

That’s all from me this week – have a fantastic weekend.

Jayne

Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Windmill Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 5NY

Email: communications.medwayft@nhs.net