I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for all your hard work, both leading up to and during our unannounced CQC visit which as you know took place over the past two days.
I hope you've been able to take a look at my video message that went out yesterday about our forthcoming CQC inspection, and if not you can see it here. It's a quick and simple way to find out what you can expect from the inspection, so please share and watch with your teams if you can. This visit offers a real opportunity for us to showcase our progress since the last inspection in 2014.
As you will be aware, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is planning to inspect our hospitals over the next couple of months as part of their routine hospital inspection programme. We should absolutely see this as a positive; not only does it provide the right assurances for patients on the quality of our services, it's also our opportunity to showcase how good we are and all the many improvements we have been making.
I am delighted and very proud that we officially launched our new Trust Strategy earlier this week, with an absolutely brilliant turnout at our launch events on Tuesday with nearly 1000 colleagues dropping in at both hospitals to find out more!
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.