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Community Engagement Update
September 2023
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Join us at our Annual Members' Meeting
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We'd like to invite you to our Annual Members’ Meeting on Wednesday 27 September 2023.
This is your opportunity to find out what has happened at the hospital over the past year and our plans for the year ahead. You will hear about the improvements that have been made and also about early successes from our improvement programme, Patient First, which has been in place for just over a year, with a phased roll-out continuing.
Our featured speaker will be Arangham Lingham, Darzi Fellow and Orthopaedic Registrar, on the subject of ‘Avoidable Cardiac Arrest Calls and Creating a Learning Culture with Patient First.’ He will be speaking about the multi-disciplinary team’s success in reducing the number of avoidable cardiac arrest calls (‘crash’ calls) from an average of five a month to just one – ultimately saving lives.
This dynamic project was a recent South East regional winner at the NHS Parliamentary Awards 2023 in the ‘Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care’ category and has been shortlisted for two other major healthcare awards with the Health Service Journal (HSJ).
The Annual Members’ Meeting takes place in the hospital restaurant, Below Deck Dining (Level One, Purple Zone), at 6pm on Wednesday 27 September. You can book your place here.
Light refreshments will be available from 5.30pm. We hope to see you there!
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 Colleagues joined the vibrant, festival atmosphere, representing the Trust for the first time in the LGBTQIA+ Medway Pride parade through Rochester.
An estimated 200 people took part and were cheered on by a throng of spectators who lined the High Street. The parade was supported by Bloco Fogo Samba Band, The Loco Cabaret, plus local community groups, companies and organisations.
Click here to watch the video on how we celebrated Medway Pride
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The Trust also attended Swale Pride on Saturday 2 September for the first time to promote our work and explain how people can get involved and have their say in shaping hospital services. By taking part the Trust seeks to give assurance to the LGBTQIA+ community that we are an inclusive and supportive employer, and a safe and respectful healthcare provider.
We had a great time speaking to people with our Trust Chair Jo Palmer, Chief Nursing Officer Evonne Hunt and Associate Director of Infection and Prevention Control Steph Gorman also in attendance.
Our sticker-colouring activity was a great hit, with many children decorating their Trust stickers with rainbow colours.
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 Our popular Summer Fun Day returned with plenty of activities for families. Colleagues and members of the public joined in the fun, found out more about our hospital and helped raise funds for the Medway Hospital Charity. In total £661.74 was raised including £131.15 from the Research team’s tombola. The money raised will be used to benefit patients and staff.
Our charity mascot Tedway came along too - we can't keep him away from events like this! - and he enjoyed having his photo taken with visitors.
Our thanks to Hospital Radio Medway for providing the music, to all involved in organising the event and to everyone who came along to support.
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What Does Patient First Mean To Our Patients? |
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 We carried out two sessions of public engagement in the main entrance. Members of the Transformation Team and Engagement Team asked 'What Does Patient First Mean To You?' Patients and visitors were asked to write their thoughts on a Post-It note. Some insightful comments were captured and you can see some of them below.
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We were sad to say goodbye to Medway Governor Zoe Van Dyke recently. We would like to thank her for all of her time and commitment, and wish her the best in her future endeavours.
However, we are pleased to introduce Hari Aggarwal as our newest Governor, who will be taking Zoe’s seat for the remainder of the term.
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Alongside nearly 40 years working in the City, I’ve dedicated significant periods of my life to a number of voluntary roles.
- I have been a Governor at Byron County Primary School, a stones’ throw from Medway Maritime Hospital
- I was a PTFA member at Rainham Mark for over 25 years and also a Governor for over 30 years and now a board member of the Academy.
- As a director and treasurer, I helped grow the Medway Racial Equality Council, bringing together places of worship and people of different backgrounds to support integration
- I have also been a member of the Foundation Trust for almost five years.
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Why I became a Governor
Medway Maritime Hospital provides such a pivotal role in the wellbeing of the people it serves. I wanted to become a Governor because I care about what happens in my local community, and so it is important to ensure the hospital performs as well as it can. I wanted to use the skills I’ve developed in my professional and personal life to support the hospital in delivering the best outcomes for the community. I want to ensure patients and staff are treated fairly, with dignity and respect, and get the best possible service.
What you plan to achieve
As a Governor, I want to ensure the views of the community are respected; to ensure that the staff are engaged in the running of the hospital; and that patients receive high quality and compassionate services.
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Sheppey Matters are hosting Walking for Health sessions. If you are interested in enjoying some evening fresh air check out the dates below.
Meeting at the back of the Healthy Living Centre: Wednesday 20 September at 6pm and Wednesday 11 October at 5:45pm
Meeting at The Leas, Little Oyster café: Tuesday 26 September at 6pm and Tuesday 3 October at 5:45pm
To book email: juliec@sheppeymatters
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Medway Voluntary Action are now inviting nominations for this year’s Barry Clout Award for Outstanding Contributions to Volunteering in Medway.
The Award is presented annually in memory of Barry Clout, an MVA Trustee and longstanding supporter of the Voluntary Sector in Medway.
If you know someone who deserves a BIG THANK YOU on behalf of the people of Medway, please take a few minutes to nominate them for this award.
To request a form or to find out more please email: georgia@mva.org.uk
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New robot for pharmacy department |
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 Our pharmacy department is undergoing an exciting transformation which will lead to improved service for our patients.
Work is due to start on replacing our current dispensing robot with a new and more technologically advanced robot which will also play a key role in the digital transformation of our hospital services.
In order for these works to be carried out our pharmacy service in the outpatients’ area on Level 2 in the Red Zone will be closed from Monday 4 September until early December 2023.
Find out more here
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 Medway Universities Welcome Fair
We will be at the Welcome Fair this month to showcase opportunities at the Trust to students.
Wednesday 20 September, 11am to 3pm
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 Canterbury Christ Church University Welcome Services Fair
We will be joining Christ Church University to give a warm welcome to students starting at Medway this academic year.
Thursday 21 September 11am to 2pm
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Organ donation is the gift of life
Grab some time to talk about it today with loved ones and add your decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register.
This is the official record which specialist nurses check if a person dies in circumstances where organ donation is possible, so it’s important to register your decisions here and share them with the people you love.
Recording your decision takes just a couple of minutes online – click here to do it: https://bit.ly/4169cXu |
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