Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 27 May 2024

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Message for All NHS Orkney Staff 

Dear Team Orkney

As we approach June, I hope everyone is enjoying this better weather and has annual leave coming up and to look forward to recognising the importance of balance for us all.

In this week’s blog I’d like to focus on:

  • Our new Corporate Strategy – next steps and how we bring our strategy to life
  • Your feedback from our Board walkabouts
  • iMatter – just 1 week to go
  • Senior Leadership Team – anyone can attend, any time
  • Some special goodbyes and thank you’s

First – our new Corporate Strategy. Our promise (vision) is that we will look after our community and provide excellent care. We have new values (open and honest, respect and kindness) and five strategic objectives that are now our focus; People, Patient Safety, Performance, Potential and Place. Underpinning each of these, we have a clear set of metrics so we can track our progress over the course of the year. Over the last few weeks, our Executive Team have been working through the Quarter 1 to 4 priorities for 2024/25 so that we can remain focused on our highest priorities and ensure there is agreement and visibility of what we aim to achieve each quarter. We’ve made good progress. Our highest priorities – which will receive support from our Improvement Hub – are:

  • Strengthened approach to risk management
  • Reducing waiting times for our patients (a fresh focus on planned care improvements – including outpatients)
  • Improving our end-to-end recruitment processes so that the process is as efficient as it can be, and in turn a better experience
  • Improving access to key services (including mental health, children’s, dentistry and primary care)
  • Population health and reducing health inequalities
  • Accelerating digitisation
  • Achieving our financial plan

We are in the process of aligning our governance system to our new strategic objectives, including agendas at Board, Board Committee and Senior Leadership Team level, and agreeing how our quarterly reporting of progress will work. More to follow on this, with our first (Quarter 1) update due in July.

This time last year we introduced Board walkabouts which involve an Executive Director and a Non Executive visiting different teams and departments across NHS Orkney and listening to how it feels working here. The walkabouts are an opportunity to listen, get to know each other and build relationships and hear first hand what you are proud of and any challenges you face, leading to how Board members can support to resolve and unblock issues.  Last week at our latest Board Development Session, we reflected on the themes from the feedback over the last year and looked ahead to how we make these walkabouts even more meaningful as an opportunity to connect with you as we look to the year ahead. The main headline themes from all of these visits are below, and many of these themes feature in our Corporate Strategy, meaning we have plans to improve in the vast majority of these areas.

Positive:

  • Outstanding teamwork and team spirit
  • Patient-centred care
  • A desire to continuously improve services, innovate and raise the bar
  • Evidence of staff regularly going above and beyond for our community

Areas for improvement:

  • Digital and IT systems and access – a continued source of frustration
  • Staffing levels
  • Multi-disciplinary working and engagement between departments – an appetite for more cross-team working, including shadowing opportunities between teams so that we better understand each other’s worlds to further build Team Orkney spirit
  • Frustrations about lack of space/estates issues
  • Greater leadership visibility
  • A feeling that when concerns are escalated that they all too often don’t go any where/issues are either not resolved or not resolved quickly

We have reflected as a Board on your feedback and we look forward to our walkabouts throughout 2024/25. If you would like a Board walkabout/visit to your service, please do get in touch and we’ll arrange this.

The iMatter survey is open and you have another week to have your say – this year’s survey closes on Monday 3 June at 5pm. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey so we know how we’re doing, how you feel working here and if the changes we are making are having a positive difference. We will use this feedback and other feedback we receive throughout the year to inform what we focus on in 2024/25 to further improve your experience of working here. 49% of you have had your say so far – please have a voice and if you haven’t responded, do your best to do so. If you need any help or support or have any questions, please contact the iMatter email address.

Moving on, our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) now meets once a month and this is the main decision-making forum on the operational side of our governance system, which is attended by our Executive Team, some wider Heads of Service, and a number of senior clinicians. Please remember that any member of Team Orkney is welcome to attend SLT, including as part of your development. If you or a member of your team would like to attend a future SLT, please contact us and we will send you the meeting details and share the papers. We committed to being consistently open and honest (one of our new values) and transparent and this is one of the changes we have made in response to your feedback about greater visibility of decisions, how they are made and how they are communicated and shared – something we have tried to improve over this last year.

Finally – I would like to recognise the exceptional contributions and leadership of two members of Team Orkney who have between them almost 50 years’ service to NHS Orkney and the NHS. First – Malcolm Colquhoun, our Head of Estates, Facilities and NPD, is retiring this coming Friday after serving NHS Orkney for 16 years. Malcolm has made an immeasurable difference, perhaps none more important than his vital role in the move from the old Balfour Hospital to the new Balfour and his leadership through the pandemic. And Maureen Swannie, who has worked for NHS Orkney since 1991 in a range of different roles – including nursing roles, Interim Head of Children’s Health Services, and Head of Strategic Planning and Performance.  Maureen has touched the lives of so many and consistently leads with kindness and compassion. Maureen’s last working day is 4 June. Thank you to Malcolm and Maureen for all you have given and achieved. You will each be missed by so many, including myself.

This week I leave you with a quote Maureen shared with me over the last year, which resonates:

“Great leaders are not the best at everything. They find people who are the best at different things and get them all on the same team.”

Have a good week, Team Orkney.

Best wishes

Laura Skaife-Knight

Chief Executive