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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.
There’s never a dull week at UHDB, but there are some weeks I enjoy more than others and they tend to be those where I get out of the office, away from back to back MS Teams calls, and meet as many of you in person as I’m able to.
So on Monday this week it was Windrush Day. For those of you who don’t know the history behind the day, it was on 22 June 1948 that Her Majesty’s Troopship the Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury docks in East London bringing over 1,000 people from the Caribbean.
I really appreciated all of the positive comments received in response to the letter that Kathy and I sent out at the end of last week expressing the Board’s support for the issues being raised by the Black Lives Matters movement and acknowledging the differential impact that Covid-19 has had on people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage. We committed to a number of actions in that letter and our aim is to write again after the Board meeting in July 2020 to let you know what we’ve done to progress them.
There are the weeks when it feels like something momentous has really happened. I know we’ve certainly had a couple of those in the past three months, but this week has been another.
It seems that 2020 really will be a year that stands out in the history books. As Chief Executive of an organisation made up of 13,000 people, and one that looks after the health of more than a million people, events across the world are never far from my mind as I know at any one time they will be affecting one or more of our colleagues or communities.
