CEO’s Blog

Dear all,

This week, our Muslim colleagues have been celebrating Eid-ul-Adha, which is one of the highlights of the Islamic calendar. This is the second year that the festival, which marks the end of Hajj, has been affected by the pandemic. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve commented often on the impact of the pandemic on preventing people living their lives as normal, but it’s important to appreciate the disruption to people’s religious and cultural lives too. The festival began at the start of this week and will end this evening, so best wishes to all those celebrating this evening. Eid Mubarak!

I feel mixed emotions about Monday. Needless to say, the social distancing restrictions have weighed heavily on our lives throughout 2021. I know for many of you the easing of them can’t come soon enough.

Dear all,

What a week of celebration it’s been, both here at the Trust and across the nation. There have been some blogs over the past 15 months that have been tough to write and probably even tougher to read… but not this week! This week, with NHS and UHDB birthday celebrations across our hospitals and the England team making the final, it feels like a brighter day.

Dear all,

It’s actually been quite an exciting week, all told! There have been some nice surprises; England winning the football, an unexpected honour for a member of #TeamUHDB and I’ve been able to get out and about a bit within the Trust too!

Starting with the last point, it was a pleasure this week to meet up with Jenny Luke, Head of Community Planned Care, for a tour around Ilkeston Community Hospital. It’s been a couple of years now since some of the services delivered on the Derbyshire Community Hospital sites such as at Ilkeston came under the wing of UHDB, particularly outpatients and surgical services.

So it’s always good to be back after a week’s leave but I must confess I did enjoy reading Magnus’ blog last week. As ever, it’s been a busy one with lots happening.