Our Chief Executive’s Blog

Gavin Boyle 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.

Chief Exec Signature

Chief Executive’s Blog

'You all have an important part to play'

Posted 0 comments

It sometimes feels like last winter just carried straight on through the summer and our emergency teams on all of our sites have had no let up.  However, this week the pressure felt like it ramped up a further notch, with extremely high levels of emergency attendances at our EDs in Burton and Derby and also an increase in emergency admissions. I want to take the opportunity to thank all of our teams who work on the front line responding to patients when they need us the most. This is obviously in the Emergency Departments but also in our acute assessment areas, our speciality wards, diagnostics, as well as our discharge and patient flow teams.  Just about everybody has a part to play in managing this important part of our service and it’s not just frontline clinical staff either but also our catering, cleaning and admin and clerical colleagues too.

'Mostly treats, with only a few tricks'

Posted 0 comments

Gavin is taking a break this week, so has left me in charge of the blog once more, which aptly happens to coincide with Halloween. I promise you that it will be mostly treats, with only a few tricks.

'Thank you everyone for what you are doing day in, day out'

Posted 0 comments

One of the highlights of my month is the opportunity to present the latest ‘Making a Difference Awards’. These recognise the achievements of colleagues who have been nominated either by their peers within UHDB, patients and families, or external partners. So this week it was a real pleasure to catch up with Karen Hill, one of our most senior nurses who did much of the behind the scenes work around the recent television programme, The Big Hospital Experiment. Not only was Karen in front of the camera herself but she also provided lots of support to our young volunteers and members of the UHDB team, who I think came across so well. Congratulations Karen!

'Our AHPs make a vital contribution to patient care'

Posted 0 comments

I had a supercharged start to my week when I was invited along by Penny Owens, our Director of AHPs (Allied Health Professionals), to launch their first annual conference for AHPs and Healthcare Scientists. Monday was also the second national AHP day, so the timing couldn’t have been better!

'Let's wage a war on waste!'

Posted 0 comments

It felt good this week to hold our Board meeting for the first time at Queen’s Hospital Burton. We recently refurbished The House – the old Trust HQ – to provide better working accommodation for some of our colleagues in supporting departments. Part of this has seen the creation of a meeting room which is big enough for this Board meeting. We took the opportunity to involve a couple of our QHB teams in the business of the Board that day.

Older articles