Welcome to our August edition of Healthy Futures
Joe Teape, Chief Executive
With summer still in full swing, many of you will hopefully be enjoying the glorious weather and spending time soaking up our glorious beaches or on the Moors.
For many of us working in the NHS, our thoughts are of cooler months as we finalise our plans for winter, which is when we usually see an increased demand for our services, particularly from people seeking help for respiratory conditions, and the frail and elderly. Our plans include encouraging our people to get their seasonal vaccinations to keep our most vulnerable people in our communities safe, while protecting our services and teams. We also have some exciting plans about doing more to support people to stay independent at home and avoid an unnecessary hospital admission – we’ll share more details with you very soon.
We’re also seeing signs of improvement across many of our services, whether reducing the time people are waiting, or when you tell us you have had a good experience when receiving your care from us. Thank you to everyone who took part in the national cancer experience survey – thanks to your generous feedback, our cancer services have once again been rated as among the best in the country for the third year in a row.
We are committed to providing the care you and your loved ones need, and while we’re making great strides we know there’s more to do. I would be grateful if you can help us to shape our future by taking part in a short survey. What you tell us will be used to create our future-facing strategy that responds to the needs of you and our communities. There’s more details on page 4.
I’m so incredibly proud of our people who have worked tirelessly to make sure you and your loved ones receive the care you need, when you need it, and continue to be treated with compassion and kindness. I also want to thank you all for your continued support of our NHS. Enjoy the rest of the summer holiday.
Joe.