I hope this finds you well.

Super Saturday at the London Stadium

Over the weekend a series of mass vaccination events took place at football stadiums across London and I’m delighted that we could play our part in protecting our communities on ‘Super Saturday’.

NHS partners across north east London worked together to run an event at the London Stadium on Saturday in the Olympic Park, in what was a fantastic effort by system colleagues.

It was a phenomenal day which saw thousands of people receive their first jab, and countless volunteers giving up their time.

Anyone aged 18 or over can now receive the vaccine. If you’ve not had yours yet, book your appointment online.

Well done to all involved and thank you.

Patient and Carer Experience strategy launched

Patients and carers are at the heart of everything we do and we must provide the best experience of care possible. That’s why I’m delighted that we’ve launched our Patient and Carer Experience strategy for 2021-2025, which will help us achieve this.

The strategy is based around three commitments – involvement, learning, and carers – and builds on a cultural shift from ‘doing to’ patients, to ‘working with’ patients and carers.

It was co-designed through a series of workshops with our patient partners and stakeholders because we want all patients and carers to have a central role in all aspects of care, service design, and improvement across the Trust.

We’re incredibly fortunate in serving such a diverse population across our three boroughs, which gives us opportunities to hear a wealth of voices to understand different experiences.

Our long-term vision is to become an outstanding organisation and this strategy will be a fundamental element of achieving this.

Celebrating Pride month

June is Pride Month, which provides us with a fantastic opportunity to educate ourselves about LGBT+ issues and show support to our colleagues.

Making sure all LGBT+ staff feel welcome and included at our Trust is crucial and we must ensure that we provide a fair and equal environment for all colleagues.

Disappointingly we know not every story is positive and in this day and age, everyone has the right to be happy and not be discriminated against.

Remi Odejinmi, who was recently appointed as our first Director for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, strengthens our focus at Board level to ensure we promote a culture that is fair and inclusive.

Mark Stephens is an example of great allyship to our LGBT+ network, which he has been a part of since it started. He is an active voice and provides consistent support to not only the network but also our LGBT+ colleagues.

His role as an ally provides support to the chair, which could be anything from helping with the distribution of our Pride half-rainbow lanyards, attending network meetings and supporting vulnerable members of our LGBT+ community.

As part of this special month, please do watch Mark’s interview where he explained what it means to him to be part of the network and to champion our LGBT+ community.

Speaking about his experiences when in the military, in the hospitality sector and since joining the NHS, it’s clear why we need allies like Mark.

We recently signed up to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme, as a further demonstration for inclusivity at our Trust.

I hope you have a good week.

Best wishes. 

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive