NHS Orkney Annual Review – Reconnecting with our community

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Meghan McEwen and Laura Skaife-Knight pictured together in The Balfour

Yesterday, 3 December 2024, we held our 2024 Annual Review meeting, which presented an opportunity for us to reconnect with our community and share our journey of improvement, our challenges and responses to these and our future plans and ambitions based on what matters to people.

We thank those who took the time to come and speak and share their stories of using NHS Orkney services – including following engagement with Age Scotland Orkney, The Blide Trust and Orkney Housing Association.

Thank you also to our Clinicians and Union colleagues. The depth and richness of the feedback we have heard added such richness to our Annual Review. Thank you to our patients, community and staff who joined us yesterday to be part of the conversations and to those who submitted questions ahead of the day and asked questions on the day.

You can view the full recording of the Annual Review here, Annual Review – Recording

You can view the Annual Review presentation slides here, Annual Review – Presentation Slides

You can review the full set of Questions and Answers from the Annual Review here, Annual Review – Questions and Answers

Meghan McEwen, Board Chair at NHS Orkney said: “I was very proud to be a part of Team Orkney at our Annual Review, it was an open and honest session that described the huge progress that has been made within NHS Orkney over the past year and also the challenge in front us for the year ahead. I especially want to thank Age Scotland Orkney, Orkney Housing Association, and Orkney Blide Trust for hosting our listening sessions. Reconnecting with our community remains a priority for the Board, and I was grateful to be given the opportunity to hear stories about our services from the people we are here to serve.”

Laura Skaife-Knight, Chief Executive at NHS Orkney said: “This meeting was a further, important opportunity for us to reconnect with our community, patients and staff to share an honest assessment of our progress to date and to evidence how we are being open and transparent in our approach to doing so. I would like to reiterate my thanks to Team Orkney (our staff) for their unrelenting focus on delivering safe and excellent care to our patients and our community and to our partners and key external stakeholders for their support and the important role they are playing in our improvement journey. It is a privilege to lead this wonderful organisation as we continue our journey of continuous improvement which will be done with openness and honesty and ambition – which is nothing less than our community and staff deserve.”