THE Trust has had several high profile visitors this week.
Chairman, Pearse Butler with Saffron Cordery and Chief Executive, Kevin McGee.
Saffron Cordery, Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers, came to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Thursday to meet staff and board members. NHS Providers is the membership organisation for all NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services that treat patients and service users in the NHS and provides national guidance and support for all Trusts..
They help those NHS foundation trusts and trusts to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system in which they operate.
She had a tour of the hospital to chat to staff and asked about the particular pressures they faced in their day to day job. She then gave a presentation to managers about the current situation in the NHS and how NHS Providers looks to represent the voice of organisations such as ours.
She spoke about the key national issues facing the NHS in terms of increasing demand for services, performance issues in areas such as A and E and cancer targets, recruitment and retention, mental health provision and an ageing estate and stressed that most of the issues this Trust may have are replicated up and down in the country.
What was great to hear was the praise Saffron had for our staff after her tour of the site. She said the people she met showed an “astonishing’’ commitment to the Trust which is something we hear time and time again from visitors and is what, for me, makes this Trust so special.
HM Treasury
WE also received a visit this week from HM Treasury.
Their team has been undertaking a series of visits to meet frontline staff to better understand the financial challenges and priorities they face – especially in the context of the recently published NHS Long Term Plan to help inform future policy thinking.
The visit was an informal one with the Treasury team meeting staff and being given a tour of the hospital by Deputy Chief Executive, Tim Bennett, Director of Operations for Unscheduled Care, Berenice Groves, Head of Finance, Feroz Patel and David Bonson, Chief Operating Officer, from the Fylde coast Clinical Commissioning.