Thursday 26th August - Leadership message from Chief Executive Tom Abell

It is now four weeks since I joined you as Chief Executive of EEAST. In that time, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a number of our sites and meet some of you in person, and have been incredibly impressed by your dedication and commitment – especially bearing in mind the current pressures we are facing.

I wanted to kick off this week’s message by saying thank you for going over and above every single day to continue delivering services to our patients, colleagues and communities. I also wanted to reinforce the message about looking after yourselves, and particularly your mental health which we can neglect when we’re under pressure. You can find more details of the support which is available on Need to Know.

I also wanted to thank you for your openness and honesty about your experiences of working for EEAST. Your feedback has given me further insight into the issues we face and has helped us to refine our areas for immediate focus for improvement. These include: 

• Reducing our backlog of legacy employee relations cases and grievances by 40% by the end of September, and managing any new cases in a timely fashion.

• Clearing outstanding job evaluations for existing or new roles, with at least 55 more evaluations being completed by the end of September.

• Finalising a clear plan for winter by the end of September.

We are also working on a number of other areas and the Executive Team is currently setting clear objectives and milestones for each. It is my intention to update you every month on the progress we’re making towards these goals.

I also met with the team leading the end of shift trial last week which, now a month in, is beginning to show some real impact and has had positive feedback from the teams in West Norfolk and West Hertfordshire. We’ve agreed to continue the trial and I’ve asked for a proposal as to how this could be rolled out across the Trust and how long it will take, which we’ll share once we have it.

I also plan to use my monthly updates to shine a spotlight on some of the fantastic teams we have working across our Trust, starting with our patient transport service (PTS). Over the past couple of weeks I’ve met teams in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and have been wholly impressed with the care, compassion and professionalism they show towards our patients. I’m delighted that our new PTS base in Stevenage will soon go live, as it will provide much improved facilities for our colleagues and help them deliver an even better service to our communities.

I’d like to finish this week’s message by reminding you that you are welcome to get in touch with your views and opinions on life at EEAST, and how we can make our Trust a better place for everyone to work and receive care. Four weeks in, I know that it will take time for us to fix long-standing issues and resolve long-standing concerns, but by continuing to listen and work together, we can take these steps together.

Take care and make sure you’re looking after yourselves and each other,

Tom

Published 26th August 2021