Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 2 September 2024

Message for All Staff 

Hi All

I hope you are keeping well. A few weeks ago we saw glimpses of summer – yet the days have returned to being mixed ones weather wise. There is a comparison to be drawn if we look at our overall performance across the organisation – it presents a mixed picture presently. What I can say however, is we can evidence improvement in a number of areas (including some where this time last year we were underperforming). And what is now different is that where we are off track, we have clear plans to recover our performance back to an acceptable level and a much firmer understanding of our issues, why we are where we are and what we are doing about it.

As I summarised at last week’s all staff briefing, here are some of the areas in which we can evidence improvement because midst our challenges there are many positives and I don’t want us to lose sight of these because these small steps forward should be celebrated and recognised.

1. iMatter – 10% more of you responded to the iMatter survey, more of you told us that you are happier working here and many more teams completed action plans this year (>70%) – while we recognise we have much more to do to improve your experience of working here, we are moving in the right direction. We have committed to making further improvements in 6 key areas in response to your feedback from iMatter and the subsequent survey we issued seeking your view. These are: (1) health and wellbeing (2) value and recognition (3) involving you in decisions that affect you (4) living our values (5) listening to and responding to your feedback and (6) creating a culture where you feel safe and confident speaking up knowing we will listen, take action and close the loop.
2. Our improving financial position – thanks to your hard work and focus, we have started the year well and after Month 4 of this year we are making good progress – we are hitting our financial plan and savings plan. Our organisation-wide focus and diligence is making a difference. There are lots of success stories to celebrate – and just two of these are our staff ideas scheme (Bright Ideas) which is enabling you to come forward with ideas for improvement and saving money. You can find out more about our Bright Ideas Scheme and how to get in touch via the link here: https://forms.office.com/e/F0iGWF14Lq. And next, we have significantly reduced our nurse agency spend which is £475k lower over the first 4 months of this year relative to the same period last year and this is testament to the excellent leadership of many across the organisation. This is great news for patients because it means better continuity of care, and good news for our financial position too so it’s a win-win. My ask is that we retain our focus and in turn sustain the improvements we have seen. The reality is we are still forecasting a year-end deficit of £5.8m and therefore still plan to spend £5.8m more than we can afford. Also, our run rate needs to reduce for the remainder of the year (consistent with our plan) which means we now need to start spending around £200K less each month from October 2024.
3. Waiting times – improving our planned care performance remains a top priority because too many of our patients are currently experiencing unacceptably long waits and this impacts adversely in many cases on people’s quality of life. We have plans to make improvements and these plans are being overseen by our new Planned Care Board. Whilst we know we must do better in certain specialties for our patients – there are improvements I want to recognise and these include: meeting the national standard for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Psychological Therapy waiting times. And while there is some way to go, we have seen improved performance and progress in physiotherapy, podiatry and orthotics. We have also secured 2 Consultant Orthodontic colleagues which means this month we recommenced the Orthodontic service In Orkney – which is further good news for patients recognising the concerns many members of our community raise with us about dentistry. We are on the right tracks.

Whilst I don’t under-estimate how far we still have to travel,  I am proud of how far we have come, the improvements we can evidence and I am excited for our future. This is all as a result of great teamwork from you all.

I believe we can do this and deliver on our promise of looking after our community and providing excellent care – because I work with an incredible team every single day – you.

Thanks for everything.

Best wishes

Laura Skaife-Knight

Chief Executive