I wanted to focus my message this week on mental health as this Wednesday (10th October) was World Mental Health Day. A chance for all of us to show support for better mental health and this year’s focus is on young people and mental health, as half of all mental health illnesses begins by the age of 14.
Welcome to a very special video message this week.
As you all know our CQC report was published yesterday afternoon following our press release - which you can read again here.
Whilst the heatwaves of summer don’t seem that far behind us our attention is now firmly on planning ahead for winter. We kick off with our Seasonal Flu Campaign on the 8th October with Flu Jabathon and I can confirm that the vaccines have arrived today.
Suzanne has asked me to write this week’s message so that I can tell you about our refreshed Digital Strategy and an exciting project we are currently working on to choose our new, fully integrated, electronic patient record.
Each week Suzanne Rankin, our Chief Executive, sends a message to staff about events at the hospitals, special achievements, and plans for the future.
We shall be adding them to this section as well as including them on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
From time to time, we shall ask other members of the Trust Board and clinical team to give their perspective on the week in our hospitals.
Suzanne was announced as the new Chief Executive in June 2014.
Suzanne began her nursing and management career with the Royal Navy, including deployment during the 1990 Gulf War; a spell as Senior Nursing Officer at NATO Headquarters in Lisbon; and Nursing Officer in charge of the 56-bed Trauma and Orthopaedic Unit at the former Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire.