Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 16 September 2024

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Message for All NHSO Staff 

Hi All

This week my update is focused on the feedback and messages I am hearing from you when I am out and about across the organisation spending time with you, and via more formal listening sessions and walkabouts that take place.

First, because it’s linked and relevant, I want to update you on a discussion we had at our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meeting within the last few weeks about sickness absence related to stress and anxiety. Circa 30% of sickness absence we see at NHS Orkney is related to stress and anxiety – for many a combination of work and home related issues. The focus of the discussion at SLT was on what we can and must now do differently to respond to this concerning trend, and importantly to get wider input and thoughts from our leadership community, including our Occupational Health and wellbeing experts, on this important subject.

There are more discussions to be had, including with our Extended Senior Leadership Team, however, it is clear we need a different set of interventions and commitments at an organisational level, as well as for managers and staff to reduce stress and anxiety at work for you. As always, we welcome any ideas and feedback about ways we can improve your experience at work.

With regard to organisational changes, it is clear from my many conversations with you that if we were to make improvements in these areas, that it would have a positive impact on you and your wellbeing:

  • No more changes in year (beyond that we have already committed to in our Corporate Strategy)
  • Addressing our waiting lists
  • Improving the Job Evaluation process – and ensuring this process doesn’t take so long
  • Streamlining vacancy control processes so that delays are minimised
  • Working together across the organisation to improve our discharge processes, so that our patients have a better experience and so that all staff can contribute to ideas for improvement recognising late in the day discharges, whilst sometimes unavoidable, happen all too often, impacting on our patients and various teams
  • A clearer ‘offer’ from our Corporate Services so there is more clarity on where and who you go to for support, and what this looks like in reality

There is work underway in each of these spaces to make the improvements that are necessary – including reviews of our Corporate Services (Finance was first, and People and Culture and Digital Services are underway), a new Planned Care Board is in place to oversee progress with our waiting times, an end-to-end review of our recruitment processes has commenced (including job evaluation) and we have stood up an organisation-wide improvement project to improve flow and our discharge processes.

I am mindful that if we can make improvements in these areas, it can only help to reduce frustrations and in some cases stress too many people currently feel linked to these items above, and other processes that we make all too difficult.

I want to acknowledge the strain many of you are feeling and experiencing, and let you know that we recognise that changes are needed to reduce and ease the pressures. We will return to discuss this at our next all staff briefing on Tuesday 24 September at 3.30pm, on Teams.

Thanks for everything Team Orkney – we are listening to you and acting on your feedback.

Best wishes

Laura Skaife-Knight

Chief Executive