Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 20 April 2024 at 04:51
Thank you for everything you continue to do to keep our patients and colleagues safe.
Along with other coastal areas, we felt the impact of more people visiting our region over the Bank Holiday weekend, this has continued into this week with us continuing to see significant delays at a number of our hospitals.
We are currently working with our system partners to plan effectively for the next few months. We anticipate that demand on our service will continue to remain high due to both COVID-19 and the start of the winter pressures, and we will be presenting our winter plan to Board next week and working with commissioners to secure additional investment into our services, so we are better placed to support our communities.
When we are under increased demand for our services, we often have to suspend training, meetings and other activities which, as a result of REAP 4, has meant that some people have not had the opportunity to complete key training. To make sure everyone completes key training we are making a temporary change to our Professional Update for Role In summary the effect of this will that the parts of the training that are a legal requirement will continue to take place face to face, with other elements being delivered online via Evolve to make these easier to access during the winter months. You can find more info on Need to Know.
As part of these changes, we have secured additional investment from Health Education England and will be releasing other CPD options which colleagues can access in the coming months.
However, I realise that these changes will be disappointing to many of you, and you have our commitment that we plan to introduce a more sustainable solution in the next financial year and will update you as soon as we have more detail.
We will shortly be offering everyone both the flu jab and a COVID-19 booster vaccination so that we can keep ourselves safe, as well as our patients, colleagues and loved ones. This offer will extend to all our people including registered volunteers and regular contractors. We will have more information on this programme as soon as it becomes available, but if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please email covid.booking@eastamb.nhs.uk
Our Pulse survey on harassment closed this week, thank you to all of you who took the time to respond. Gathering your views on working for EEAST will continue to be important as we make the cultural changes needed. This will take time, so every three months we will publish an update so that you can see the progress we are making. You can find this quarter’s attached here. As you can see, we are taking lots of action to make people’s working lives better by improving our managers’ leadership skills, reducing the number of short-term contracts and resolving complaints and grievances more quickly.
Our Fit for the Future programme will be crucial in helping us make the long-term cultural changes that are needed over the coming years and will kick off by spending the next year getting the basics right. The programme includes five key workstreams focusing on the steps required to strengthen and improve the culture of EEAST, which are culture, workforce, system partnership, capability and capacity and demonstrating impact. You can read more about Fit for the Future on Need to Know.
Together, we can make EEAST a great place to work and volunteer and I look forward to working with you all to achieve this.
Look after yourselves and stay safe
Dr Tom Davis
Published 2nd September 2021