Great to celebrate NHS milestone, says chief nurse

Last week was a fantastic celebration of the 75th birthday of the NHS and it was great to be able to mark this special milestone with our colleagues and patients.

The Executive Team spent time visiting departments to say thank you, we shared inspirational NHS stories across the Trust’s social media channels and supported the Shrewsbury NHS75 parkrun.

Over the last 75 years the NHS has continually innovated and adapted to meet the changing needs of our communities, embracing new technologies along the way.

Innovation to improve care and outcomes for our patients is always a key factor at our Trust and our surgeons have performed their first operations assisted by a state-of-the-art surgical robot.

This is fantastic news because not only is robotic surgery providing our patients with high quality care, it is helping reduce the length of time they are spending in hospital following complex operations.

Our new robotic system is being used to assist with colorectal, gynaecology and urology surgery and I would like to thank our surgical teams who have spent many months undergoing specialist training to be able to use it.

Another way we are providing high quality care for patients is through our 24 Swan Rooms. These are specially designed rooms that offer a peaceful and calming environment for families to spend precious time with their loved ones who are receiving end of life care.

We recently opened our first Swan Suite on Ward 28 which is a quiet, comfortable space for colleagues to speak to families and loved ones in a private and dignified way.

We are so grateful for the support of the Swan Fund, as well as kind donations from the community, for making these rooms possible.

Jules Lewis, Swan End of Life Care Facilitator and Lead Nurse, has been instrumental in this work and I’m so pleased that she will be featured in a special BBC series of Extraordinary Portraits to mark NHS75.

Comedian and actor Bill Bailey is presenting the six-part series which pairs up Jules and other inspiring NHS staff with leading British artists. The series begins on BBC One on Monday (17 July) at 8.30pm.

Our Hospitals Transformation Programme plans have moved another step forward with our Outline Business Case (OBC) on track to be submitted this summer, which is a key milestone in the national approval process.

The plans will ensure we improve care for everyone with the Princess Royal Hospital site specialising in planned care, and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital site specialising in emergency care. In addition to this, a 24/7 enhanced urgent care service (A&E local model) will be available at the Princess Royal Hospital site.

We have already seen multi-million pounds of investment at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford with the building of a new planned care hub and front entrance that is fully aligned with the HTP.

Our Trust has also begun the planning application submission process and will be holding a series of planning events for the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital site this month to hear your views and answer questions around the application. For full details please visit our website www.sath.nhs.uk/news/plans-for-htp-on-track-for-next-milestone/

Tomorrow marks the start of the junior doctors’ strike and this will be followed by the consultants’ strike next week.

We, alongside our partners, are doing all that we can to reduce the impact the industrial action will have, but you can help by using the right service for your health needs. All the information is on the ‘Think which service?’ website: www.thinkwhichservice.co.uk

If you have a life-threatening illness or injury, please continue to dial 999. If you have a hospital appointment during the strike action, please continue to attend unless we contact you.