I hope you have been enjoying the sunshine, I certainly have been enjoying spending more time in the garden getting my daily dose of vitamin D. Having said that, please do make sure you are taking care to keep hydrated, wear sunscreen and all the other precautions, as well as looking out for others who may need some extra support during this spell of hot weather.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Health way Foundation Step Challenge last month. You raised almost £1500 for our charity as well as supporting your own health and wellbeing and that of your colleagues. It was great to see so many people sharing details and pictures about how they were getting their steps in for the challenge. We will be sharing more soon about some of the personal stories of those who took part. You can also find out more about the Health Way Foundation here.

I loved meeting new colleagues at our Trust monthly meet and greet on Thursday as part of Trust induction. We consistently welcome over 100 new starters each month and it’s great to hear why colleagues are choosing to work for NELFT and also to welcome back people who have worked with us previously and returned to Team NELFT. Capturing the feedback and experiences of our new recruits is really helpful to support our efforts to reduce our vacancy rate and grow our workforce, so I’m grateful to everyone who shares their story. We love to hear about and share your experiences and this month I would like to thank Rolake, one of our community nurses, for sharing her journey from administrator in our IT department to qualified community nurse in Havering.

You will have heard Wellington Makala, our Chief Nurse, and others talking about the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework and the work we have been doing to address health inequalities. We are hosting our launch event on Friday 14 July and you are welcome to join us. The event is open to patients, carers and members of our local communities so please do share the details. You can register for the event here and I look forward to seeing you there.

A huge thank you from me for all that you are doing to support our patients, carers and each other.

Take care and stay safe,

Jacqui