I hope that you are finding the new Trust e-bulletin interesting and a welcome arrival into your inbox every week!

As you know we’ve entered the pre-election period where many a promise is made. One promise, which I know matters to you, is about putting our patients first and ensuring that we continue to provide compassionate care as best we can.

So, as we enter this Easter holiday with two Bank Holidays close together and on the back of a very challenging winter for  all Trusts, we know that this period will bring additional pressures  in terms of the flow of patients and our ability to ensure our patients get their care in a timely and safe fashion.

In readiness for this weekend we have drawn up an Easter Resilience plan looking at all our services, their opening times, staffing levels on all wards, medical rotas and community service provision such as pharmacies. Recent years have shown us that A&E is extra busy mainly with minor injuries and we have already staffed-up in readiness for this year.  Throughout the next week we shall be running a daily teleconference with our local partners across health and social care to highlight issues, reduce risks and work out what can be done together to keep compassionate care flowing.  Colleagues  Saj Azeb, Bev Walker and Mandy Gibbons-Phelan will be our reps on these teleconferences.

To help us meet the challenges of this weekend, we have a special pack which has gone out to all doctors and on-call colleagues containing all key information about  who should be contacted should issues arise so they can be tackled swiftly and effectively.  The Patient Flow office will be the central point of support during this time.  

Above all else, our aim is to discharge all  patients who are medically fit so they can be at home with their families over the holiday period.

So, can I take this opportunity to thank everyone in Team CHFT for all your hard work for our patients and wish you and your families well for Easter-time,

Best wishes,

Owen