Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 04 May 2024 at 19:24
Thank you for your hard work over Easter
I hope everyone managed to get a little time over the Easter weekend with friends and families. I want to thank all of you who were working. Having been on call over the weekend, it was fantastic to see how everyone worked together as a team to do the very best for our patients – both working with EEAST colleagues as well as our partners across the region – and, as a result, the fantastic care we were able to provide despite the challenges and a number of complex incidents we had to respond to.
Celebrating together
June will see a month-long celebration here at EEAST to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee, and there will be opportunities throughout the month for everyone to be involved.
We will kick off with Volunteers Week at the beginning of June, celebrating all the work carried out by our various volunteer groups throughout the Trust. We will also start to distribute the Jubilee Medals and Coins throughout the organisation, which we expect to take around three weeks. As a reminder, the Jubilee Medals are being issued across the NHS to people with more than five years frontline service. At EEAST, we want to say thank you to all of our people and have arranged for everyone to receive a commemorative Jubilee coin which will be distributed alongside the medals.
Next up will be our Thanks Team EEAST week (20th-26th June) which will be an opportunity for us all to thank those colleagues who have really made a difference to our work life. We’ll be focusing on one of our five Trust Values each day: Teamwork, Quality, Respect, Honesty, Care, so if there’s someone you feel deserves a mention then please keep an eye out for further details. We will also be sharing thank you messages from our partners and the wider community.
Finally, during the last week of June, we will be holding our first long service awards since the beginning of the pandemic. I know, from speaking to many of you that this is something that has really been missed. We’re still finalising our plan which we will share with you as soon as a decision has been made.
Measuring the pulse
If you haven’t already had the opportunity to complete the latest Pulse survey, then please do consider taking the time to do so during the next few days if you have a few moments. It’s open until 30th April and is completely anonymous. It’s a great barometer for what’s working and what isn’t within EEAST, and the more responses we have the clearer the picture, and the more focused we can make planning for the future. You can find the survey here.
Mental Health Pledge
We talk a lot about the importance of good mental health, but sometimes it’s hard to demonstrate the work we’re doing to provide support for staff who need it. This week, I’m delighted that EEAST has signed up to the Blue Light Mental Health at Work Commitment, a movement across the UK emergency services which is making mental health a strategic priority.
In signing up to the Commitment, we are obliged to agree to six standards which include promoting an open culture around mental health, developing our own confidence and capability around mental health as an organisation, and ensuring that we deliver a programme of activity to promote and support it. Falling in the middle of Stress Awareness Month, this pledge is a real reminder of the focus we all need to have on our own wellbeing. The support is there if you, or a colleague needs it, whether that’s through own Wellbeing service, via MIND or Samaritans. You are not alone, and we will do all that we can to help.
Many thanks for all that you continue to do.
Tom Abell
Chief Executive
21st April 2022