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Another year of continuous improvement and achievement – there’s much to celebrate
Dear Orkney Community, 2024/25 has been a year of significant transition, change and further progress for NHS Orkney. With just a few days of 2024/25 to go, it’s important for us that we pause and take some time to look at how far we’ve come and recognise the further progress we’ve made that is making a positive difference to you, our patients, our community, and our colleagues. We have reached many more important milestones and achievements and we want to celebrate these. Our ambition and promise at NHS Orkney is to look after our community and provide excellent care on a consistent…
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Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 24 March 2025
Message for All NHSO Staff Our Executive Lead for whistleblowing is changing to our Medical Director In this week’s blog I focus on the ways we listen and the work we’re doing to create a culture where you feel safer speaking up when you have concerns, including safety concerns, or have feedback to share about what it’s like to work here. It’s important that you know there are lots of places you can turn to for advice or for your concerns to be looked into – so you feel heard and supported. In response to your feedback and, now we…
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Local Children invited to name Inpatient Wards at The Balfour
Currently our two Inpatient Wards at The Balfour are simply named “Inpatients 1” and “Inpatients 2” but we’re ready to change these. Our children are our future and a lot of the children at our local primary schools are likely to be our future workforce here at NHS Orkney with many potentially being based at The Balfour. We’re reaching out to all children currently in Primary 4 – Primary 7 and inviting them to come up with two names for our Inpatient Wards. We have asked that any names fit into one of the following categories: We’re excited to see…
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Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 10 March 2025
Message for All NHSO Staff Morning all Happy Monday! We have talked a lot in recent months about the importance of celebrating our wins, successes and achievements, recognising it can at times be all too easy to focus on where we need to do better and improve, and of course there must be a balance. And this last week we have lots of celebrate – not least our 42 colleagues and teams who have been shortlisted for our Team Orkney Awards and been recognised for their outstanding work and contributions by our patients, community, and peers. There is no higher…
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Waiting List Validation – All Patients Waiting Over 40 Weeks
From next week, Monday 17 March 2025, patients who are currently on a waiting list for an outpatient appointment and have been waiting over 40 weeks will receive a text message from The National Elective Coordination Unit (NECU) from mobile number 07860 039092. These text messages will include a link to a short survey asking if patients still need their appointment, followed by a few questions to confirm their identity. People who are answering the survey on behalf of someone else must provide the patient’s details at this stage. While the majority of patients will receive a text message, some…
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Team Orkney Award shortlist 2025 – 5 March 2025
Today we announce the 42 individuals/teams who have been shortlisted for our 2025 Team Orkney Awards. Our shortlist has been chosen by our judging panel who had the difficult job to whittle down the 157 nominations to just 42 finalists. Those shortlisted are recognised for their exceptional contributions and for looking after our community and providing excellent care. We are again working in partnership with The Orcadian who have sponsored the People’s Choice Award. The full shortlist can be viewed here, Team Orkney Awards 2025 – Shortlist 2025 | NHS Orkney Laura Skaife-Knight, NHS Orkney Chief Executive, said: “Very many congratulations to everyone who was nominated…
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Postal Issues
We have been made aware that there remains some issues with Royal Mail at the moment and some patients have been experiencing a delay in receiving their appointment letters. If your appointment is urgent or imminent we will contact you by telephone. If you live in one of the areas affected by the postal issues and are expecting an appointment with NHS Orkney shortly and have not received an appointment letter, you can give us a ring to check on 01856 888100. If you are expecting an appointment with NHS Grampian please contact 0345 456 6000 and ask to be…
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Working together to improve Orkney’s Health and Wellbeing – Leaving Hospital
This feature focuses on our hospital inpatient wards and in particular leaving hospital. This is the third of our regular series of patient information and updates to put the spotlight on clinical services at NHS Orkney. As an organisation, we want to share with you and be open and transparent about how we are addressing the challenges we face in supporting you. The hospital inpatient wards are under pressure and we need your assistance to help us meet your needs and to support you to take responsibility for your own health and wellbeing. We start this feature by asking…
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Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 24 February 2025
Message for All NHSO Staff Dear all First, very many congratulations to all of our nominees for this year’s Team Orkney Awards. We had 189 nominations, across 13 categories for 157 individuals/teams – and 50 more nominations than last year. This is a fantastic response. Thanks to everyone who took time to nominate. Our shortlisting panel will meet today and we look forward to announcing our 2025 shortlist week commencing 3 March 2025. A few other congratulations from me to start the week – including to Georgie Green, our Practice Educator in Nursing and Midwifery, for receiving her Queen’s Nurse…
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Team Orkney Awards nominees announced
We are delighted to announce the 157 individuals/teams who have been nominated in this year’s Team Orkney Awards, over 50 more nominations than last year, which celebrate the exceptional contributions of staff at NHS Orkney and the wider health and care system. Each nomination is testament to the dedication and hard work shown across the health and care sector in Orkney and recognises staff who go above and beyond to look after our community and provide exceptional care. The categories for this year’s awards are: Click here to view the full list of nominees, Team Orkney Awards – Nominees List 2025. Our…
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First Minister visits NHS Orkney to celebrate and recognise the hard work of staff
Today we welcomed First Minister, John Swinney, to NHS Orkney, and shared our journey of improvement and how our staff are looking after our community and providing excellent care to patients. Mr Swinney was met at The Balfour by our Board Chair, Meghan McEwen and Chief Executive, Laura Skaife-Knight. He was taken on a tour of The Balfour, hearing from staff in a number of departments, including Maternity, Emergency Department, Inpatients 2 Ward and Radiology – with staff sharing what they are proud of and their many achievements as well as our challenges and how we are responding to them.…
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Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff – 10 February 2025
Message for All NHSO Staff Hi All I wanted to share some updates with you about how we are responding to the recent external review I commissioned into cultural development, governance and senior leadership and the resulting report that we shared with you a few weeks ago. As an Executive Team we have met on a number of occasions in recent weeks to reflect on the report, notably what we will each do differently and collectively to respond to the feedback we have received. We have also met as a Health Board to have open and honest conversations about what…