Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in our CQC Well-Led Inspection this week. I had the privilege, with Wellington Makala, our Chief Nurse and Executive Director for AHPs and Psychological Professions, of presenting to the CQC inspection team.

This month is LGBT Pride Month and I am delighted to see all of the activity being led by our LGBT+ Staff Network. Colleagues attended Canterbury Pride for the first time at the weekend and it looked like a brilliant day.

This week I’ll start by saying a huge thank you to all colleagues who worked over the long Bank Holiday weekend to ensure that our patients and their loved ones were well cared for, I really do appreciate it. I hope that if you did work you will plan to have some time off soon.

I am going to start this week by sharing some feedback from our Trust Board meeting that took place on Tuesday. We always begin each meeting with a patient journey as it really helps to ground us and it is so important for us to remember why we are all here.

Firstly, I would like to thank our Executive Medical Director, Dr Caroline Allum, for deputising for me last week while I was on leave. It was great to have a break (even if I was poorly for some of it) and switch off from work. As always, I will remind colleagues of how important it is to take time off and I hope you are all making plans to ensure you take some of your annual leave over the coming months.