Proud to be your CEO

Further to Hattie’s announcement last week regarding my appointment as chief executive officer for BHT, I wanted to write to you and thank you for your support and hard work.

It has been a great honour leading this organisation over the past 18 months. You have delivered significant improvements for our patients, demonstrating our CARE values on a daily basis. The impact of your work is clear to see.

Last year we established the BHT way, bringing a new sense of ambition and aspiration to the organisation. It is an ambition that I don’t want us to lose sight of as we look to the future. It has been central to the development of our five year strategy. A strategy that is defined by a focus on quality, people and money – we cannot tackle these in isolation. It is realistic of the challenges facing the NHS, but does not allow us to settle for mediocrity.

We are in year one of delivering our plan and I am certain that more of the same will not deliver the outcomes we are looking for. We will go backwards if we don’t increase our pace and momentum and focus our efforts on those priorities that will have the biggest impact for us.

For me, I think it includes improving the visibility of our leaders across our organisation. It includes listening to the voices of our patients, communities and staff when developing our transformation plans. It includes working with partners across the system, as we cannot achieve our ambition on our own. It includes enabling a greater dialogue between our clinicians, GPs and other health and care professionals. And it requires greater transparency in decision making.

These are themes that I am keen to discuss further with you throughout August and September, and I am scheduling a number of sessions and events to involve as many staff as possible. Please look out for further details over the coming weeks. In the meantime, whatever you have planned, I hope you have an enjoyable summer.

I am proud to have the opportunity to continue working alongside you to make BHT one of the safest healthcare systems in the country.

Neil

Valuing our staff

Dear colleague

In the last few days we have undoubtedly witnessed a shift in our political and possibly social landscape; there is no doubt that we face a period of uncertainty, and it will be a while before we fully understand the implications of Friday’s vote to leave the European Union on us all personally, and on the NHS. I know that the corridors and staff rooms have been alive with debate and clearly this will continue to be a topic of conversation for weeks to come.

Whatever the practical implications, the high regard and respect with which we value all our staff, including – particularly at the moment – our colleagues who come from abroad to take up the offer to work in the NHS, remains the same. There is absolutely no doubt that without your contribution BHT would not be able to offer the great patient care and experience it does today.

We have the opportunity, and the responsibility, as colleagues to focus not on that which makes us different, but that which unites us: our shared common purpose to care for people who are sick and in need of our help. Now, more than ever, we must demonstrate our CARE values and celebrate what brings us together and what makes our Trust and our health service so great: our people – every one of you.

Many of you will already have taken the opportunity to offer support and reassurance to colleagues, and I thank you for that. Please continue to reinforce this message; we can all play our part in making sure that staff and patients feel welcome and valued in our Trust.

Yours sincerely

Neil

 

Neil Dardis
Chief Executive

 

Exciting future for our specialist and community services

I recently paid a visit to our cardiac services at Wycombe Hospital where I had the opportunity to see the new catheter laboratory with its state of the art technology – we are only the second trust in the country already using this sophisticated equipment. We are also planning to develop a second catheter laboratory next year. Staff there explained that these developments mean we can see around 700 more patients who will previously have had to go elsewhere.

A time to engage

You will be aware that junior doctors held their second all-out strike last week.

I visited all wards and departments at Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospitals during the strike and was impressed by the team work and support to maintain good quality care. I want to thank all staff who have risen so well to the unprecedented challenge of the past week. But I also want to thank junior doctors for keeping us informed in the run up to the strike to ensure plans were in place to keep patients safe.

2015/16 … a rare moment to reflect

This week marks my first year as chief executive at Bucks Healthcare. It has been an amazing experience, not without its challenges, but also filled with many achievements that we can be proud of.

When I first started this blog I wrote about establishing a BHT way of working. A way that was ambitious and didn’t settle for mediocrity. A way that developed a new relationship with staff and our communities. And a way that would create a new, positive culture within our organisation.

Our ‘new’ age old values

For this blog post I decided to try something different by inviting you to ask me any questions you had in mind. One of the submissions was particularly topical, relating to the imminent roll out of our ‘new’ values and behaviours.

So here is this month’s ‘star letter’:

 “So this is our new values, I find this statement to be insulting. I have been a nurse for over 40 years and CARE is not new to me.

New branding will not change care only good practice and great leadership at clinical level can do this

Value your staff and care for them so that they in turn can give great CARE”

I welcome the opportunity to have this dialogue.

Merry Christmas

I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

I am proud of everything that we have achieved together and want to take the opportunity to thank you for your contribution to the fantastic care we provide for our patients.