Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 2 June 2025

Message for All NHSO Staff 

Hi All

The weather seems to have returned to ‘business as usual’ after several weeks of sunshine which I know gave us all a boost.

I start with three good news stories, so we start the week on a positive.

First – we have received £165,000 from Scottish Government to address some of our longest waits – particularly in ENT and Ophthalmology – with a strong focus on aiming to have zero 52-week waits by the end of March 2026 consistent with the national number one priority for all Boards. We are awaiting updates on funding requested for Endoscopy and we have been awarded circa £8,000 to reduce long waits in Orthopaedics, though discussions are ongoing as we didn’t receive the full amount we had bid for here. The additional funding received to date means we will be able to treat over 800 of our longest wait patients in 25/26.

Moving on – as you know, one of the priorities in our 25/26 Corporate Strategy is to launch a new Leadership Development Programme. I’m pleased to report that our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at its last meeting agreed the three components of our new programme which include: (1) Leadership Development Programme for our Extended Senior Leadership Team (2) a Manager’s Programme for all new and existing line managers which will be a module-based programme to support those with line management responsibilities with core skills and (3) our Quality Improvement training. More to follow on this exciting programme in the weeks to come.

Last week we had a brilliant Board development session discussing and agreeing together the culture we want to create here and our exciting engagement plans to create, with you, our new behavioural standards. We look forward to sharing these details with you in the weeks to come and to working together to make NHS Orkney a better place to work.

Our new MRI scanner is here and it was a highlight of last week for Board members to visit this incredible new facility for our patients and community. Thank you to everyone who has made this happen.

Finally – our iMatter response rate as at first thing this morning, Monday 2 June was 67% (compared to 69% last year). Thank you to everyone who had their say. We look forward to receiving our results and to sharing these with you in the coming months so we can listen and respond to your feedback, which is what matters most, further improve your experience of working here and building on the work we have done in the last few years to demonstrate we are putting people first in all we do.

Have a great week everyone.

Best wishes

Laura Skaife-Knight

Chief Executive