Taking a moment to celebrate

I remember very well some of the very first conversations I had with staff when I joined the Trust last year, in particular the discussions we had about our #Flourish approach. As we worked together to understand how this could look here at Newcastle Hospitals we developed three themes – health and wellbeing, values and behaviours and reward and recognition. The focus group looking at this final area – reward and recognition – asked very clearly whether we could hold a celebration event to recognise some of our teams and individual members of staff, as well as fundraisers and volunteers who contribute so much.

So I’m delighted that we will be holding our inaugural Celebrating Excellence event tonight. And it’s very timely to be holding this event so soon after our Outstanding CQC success, so that we can continue our celebrations a little longer.

In the very busy jobs that we all have, it can be difficult to remember to take a moment to stop and reflect on our successes and what we have achieved. We should be proud that we are part of an organisation that is constantly looking to improve and enhance our services, but we should also, every now and then, take some time to remind ourselves and each other to feel proud and celebrate.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate colleagues for our awards. We received over 500 very strong entries, and I know the judges had an almost impossible job narrowing them down to the finalists. I’d like to take a moment to say good luck to all our finalists who will be attending the ceremony tonight. We’re also sending out certificates to everyone who was nominated – so you may receive one in the post!

You can follow the event on our @NewcastleHosps twitter account and I will be publishing a mini blog early next week with all of our winners.

This month, our Flourish website  includes some resources to help us all celebrate and say thank you which you can download, and I’d encourage everyone to take a moment to do that.

Would you like to get moving?

We’ve been building our relationships with the Great North Run Company over recent months, and I’m pleased to be able to announce an exciting opportunity to encourage staff to start running. The Great North 5k will take place early on Saturday 7 September, the day before the Great North Run, at Newcastle Quayside. It’s a great way to experience running for fun for the first time!

Working in partnership with the Great Run Company and Benefits Everyone, we have 200 places for the Great North 5k available for staff. If enough people are interested, we’ll be having our own NHS ‘wave’ in the event! So if you’ve been looking for some motivation to get a bit fitter, this could be your chance – even if you want to walk the route you are welcome to join!

I’d love to encourage staff who have never run 5k before to take part, and to support you I’m including a 5k training plan for absolute beginners, as well as a 5 week plan for those who can run a little already. Find the training plans here

There are already staff running groups in the Trust who welcome new members and a dedicated couch to 5k group will start at the Freeman Hospital shortly. There is also the NHS couch to 5k app that you can download from the app and google stores.

Tickets will be available through the Benefits Everyone website at the subsidised price of £10 (instead of the usual price of £22).

I look forward to following your progress!

Flourish in July

As well as an opportunity to get running in July, our #Flourish theme for the month is #WorkPerks, highlighting the extra benefits that all staff get by being part of the team at Newcastle Hospitals.

Our benefits festival will take place on Wednesday 3 July 11am – 2.30pm at Peacock Hall Lawn and Wednesday 10 July 11am – 2.30pm at Old Cheviot Court, Freeman, and provide a great opportunity to find out more about some of the benefits available, plus everyone attending can enter an exclusive prize draw. We have also negotiated special discounts throughout the month.

I’d also like to mention our community service celebration event which will take place on Tuesday 9 July 2019 in rooms 137/138 at the Freeman Hospital Education Centre from 11am – 3pm. Our community services are a vital and valued part of our organisation, and if you’d like to know more about the work that goes on outside of our hospitals I’d encourage you to visit.

Shelford Group

The Shelford Group is a collaboration between ten of the largest teaching and research hospital Trusts in England, who come together to influence national policy. I will take over the Chair of the Shelford Group from 1 August, which will be another way for us to ensure that our experiences here in Newcastle will be able to make a difference more widely. If you would like to know more about the Shelford Group, their recent publication can be found here.

Out and about

Last week I attended the Shelford Chief Executives meeting where we met with Gareth Arthur, Director of Strategy and Policy for Specialised Services, NHS England/Improvement to contribute and inform national policy on Specialised Commissioning. Dr Sam Roberts, CEO of Advanced Access Collaborative, attended to inform the group of their priorities and contribute expert insight to their implementation. We also welcomed Baroness Dido Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement who spoke about the recent publication of the People Plan.

Earlier this week I also spoke at the NHS Confederation Conference about the work we are doing to improve the Health,
Wealth and Wellbeing of the city with our partners in Newcastle. It was clear that we are in a strong position in Newcastle with lots of interest in our approach.

Awards and achievements

Yesterday, the CQC’s national inpatient survey was published and showed that the Trust is amongst the best performing in the country for inpatient care. We are thrilled to be seen as a national leader for our inpatient care which is clearly demonstrated by these latest results.

Listening to our patients, carers and their loved ones about their experiences is essential to help ensure the care we provide is of the excellence standard we strive to deliver. The outcome of this recent inpatient survey is testament to the hard work and dedication of all our staff.

• Nutrition Nurse Specialists Hayley Leyland, Jess McDonald and Stacey Vass at the Freeman Hospital have won this year’s British Society of Gastroenterology Nurses Association (BSGNA) Nurse’s Award.

  

• The BSGNA award recognises individuals or teams who have made a demonstrable, positive impact on patient care and team received the award in recognition of their home parenteral nutrition (HPN) and intestinal failure service which offers the highest quality of care for patients from all over the North East and Cumbria.
• The IT team has been shortlisted for two awards at the national Public Sector Paperless Awards – the document store for Best Digital Document Management and Electric Observations for Paperlite Project of the Year. Well done to everyone involved in both projects.
• Graham King has also been shortlisted for Chief Information Officer of the Year in the Digital Health Awards 2019 for his ‘selfless’ effort to run the regional procurement of a HIE (Health Information Exchange).

  

The Great North Children’s Hospital has adopted its very own permanent elephant sculpture as part of the Elmer Parade, who has been given the name ‘Hope’ by three-year-old Annabelle-Rose Cardigan, who won our competition to give the elephant a name. Hope is now to be designed and painted by local artist, Louise Bradley who has been meeting young patients to gather ideas.