Hi all
It’s been a little while since I last sent out a CEO Blog. With the General Election purdah period in force, most communications activity is put on hold until the result is known.
As you may know, the General Election ended with changes in our parliamentary representatives for Stoke-on-Trent. Of course, we should and do remain strictly politically neutral as an NHS Trust, but it was heartening to see support for the NHS at the top of the political agendas for all the main poltiical parties. I would like to put on the record our appreciation and thanks for the support and encouragement we have received over recent years from our departing local representatives, Gareth Snell and Ruth Smeeth. Both have been good friends to Combined Healthcare and represented the views of their constituents to us assiduously, which complemented perfectly our own efforts and channels for listening to the views of our service users, their careers and families.
We very much look forward to developing our partnership and friendship with our newest MPs, Jo Gideon MP and Jonathan Gullis MP, as well as continuing our excellent relationships with returning representatives, Jack Brereton MP and Karen Bradley MP. We will be sending each of them a copy of a great new Information Pack, produced jointly by our Communications, OD and recruitment teams which sets out who we are and what we do. This was used for the first time recently at a fabulously successful recruitment fair – which saw over 200 people through the door – and will also be used as part of our induction process.
VISIT BY CLAIRE MURDOCH
Another unfortunate result of Election purdah was that we were unable to give as much publicity as we would have liked to a visit to Combined Healthcare from Claire Murdoch.
Claire is the national Director for Mental Health services as well as being Chief Executive of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.
To make good use of Claire’s time, and to give an opportunity for wider system colleagues to meet with her, we organised a number of things on the day, including:
- A system wide discussion on progress with our long term Mental Health development programme
- Informal lunch and chat with our frontline staff
- Plaque unveiling at our new all age Crisis Care Centre followed by a tour of the new facility
This gave us an excellent opportunity to describe all the positive work that we have done to date as a system and of course discuss our hopes for the next four years as documented within our draft long term strategy. It was also an opportunity to ask Claire about how we are performing relative to other systems and benefit from her advice given the breadth of her knowledge and role.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR 2019
It’s been another fantastic year for our Trust. In fact it’s been Outstanding.
None of it could happen without our amazing people – staff, service users and partners.
We wanted to say a huge “Thank You”, but THEY say it much better themselves…
So on behalf of all of us and all of them, here’s a heartfelt message from us to you.
WE’RE HERE EVERY HOUR, EVERY DAY
Of course, we should never forget that whilst Christmas and New Year is a time of joy and happiness for some, it can also be a challenging and distressing time for others. We never forget our core purpose – to be there every hour, every day for our local communities and the people we serve. If you are concerned about your mental health or someone you care for over Christmas and New Year, you can contact us any day, 24 hours around the clock, on 0800 0 328 728 (option 1).
If you have a hearing impairment and are unable to utilise the telephone, you can text the Access Team on 07739 775202 and the team will respond as soon as possible (please note: this text service is charged at your network provider’s rate).