Gavin Boyle is Chief Executive of University Hospitals Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust
“Working in the NHS is a huge privilege; there are few walks of life where it is possible to make such a positive impact on people’s lives. It’s an institution I love and which I think distinguishes us as a nation and as a civilised society. I also believe that we have a responsibility to safeguard it for future generations.
My priorities are delivering the best possible patient care, enabling our people to play their part, working in partnership and being sustainable in improving the care for our community.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading my regular blog and finding out more about the work of the Trust.
This week has seen clinicians from across the Trust to work together in what we call an improvement cell. Regular blog readers will know the Trust has adopted the LEAN way of working to try to make our services more efficient for our patients.
Our public Board meetings always seem a bit of a milestone and an important date in the calendar. This was especially true this week when our Board meeting fell just a week after the first-year anniversary of forming UHDB.
It’s been a week of birthdays. It’s the 71st year anniversary since the NHS was born today and Derby and Burton Hospitals Charity have been holding tea parties across our hospitals to celebrate. It’s one year since the establishment of Derbyshire Pathology delivering a united service across the whole county. And of course it was our own UHDB birthday on Monday, following the merger last year. This was a great opportunity to celebrate what’s been achieved in year one, thank all our colleagues for working so hard to make our first year a success and also to recognise how challenging this has been, and eat a little bit more cake, obviously!
It’s now been a year since University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust was created on 1 July. It’s been a time of challenge and change but with real progress made in delivering on the promises we made to improve patient care as a result of forming our new organisation.
I felt very proud indeed when we paid a visit to Ward 20 at QHB to hear about the terrific work they’ve been doing to improve our discharge processes.
