HELLO everyone and welcome to my latest blog.
Firstly, thank you to everyone for all continuing to work really hard – things are not getting any easier are they? I know you are all totally committed to getting our services back to normal, and understand that this is going to take some time.
Nevertheless, our patients and our communities deserve this effort and I am delighted at the progress we are making. It’s essential that we stay focussed on the long term reset objectives, and providing a safe, caring environment for those people who need us, and who have been waiting for procedures and diagnostics.
It is equally important that we provide the reassurance people need to give them the confidence to seek medical help when they need it, and not avoid our services out of fear of COVID-19. We are working with our partners and other providers to give this reassurance and we appreciate your support in reinforcing these messages.
Part of this is the requirement for you all to continue to follow the guidance we have in place around social distancing, mask wearing and hygiene. Signage is extensive around our sites – keep left, stay apart, wash your hands – please, stick to the rules. We distributed a red alert last week and I would ask that you continue to follow the guidance we gave for the safety of our patients, your colleagues, yourself and your family. You will be aware of the heightened risk in some of our communities in the north just now, especially Blackburn and Pendle, Rochdale and Oldham. Nobody wants a return to lockdown, so do take every opportunity to role model the behaviours required and give information to your friends and neighbours about how to avoid spreading COVID-19.
Trust in the limelight
The Trust has been in the national and regional news this week with BBC running two big news features.
On Tuesday we were on the national BBC news with a story of a young dental patient having a tooth taken out. Her original operation was cancelled prior to COVID and the film showed her delight at being able to finally get her treatment and the way the Trust helped and supported her along the way. The report is on the BBC national news link and starts 27 minutes into the programme. On Wednesday BBC NW Tonight highlighted the story of Roehl Ribaya who left the intensive care unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital after 60 days HERE (3mins 50secs in). Both stories showed the amazing compassion and expertise of our staff and I was delighted to see the Trust feature so positively.
Thanks to everyone involved and to our communications team who helped arrange for these films to take place.
Eid al-Adha
Eid al-Adha runs from July 30 to August 3 this year and is widely celebrated across the world – marking Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience – and follows the completion of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. It is the second major celebration of the Islamic calendar after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. I want to wish all our Muslim colleagues and friends a very happy Eid. I’d also like to thank our Muslim staff, and of course our Muslim communities, for their ongoing support throughout the Covid challenges. We realise that this has been – and still is – particularly difficult.