Back to the flowerbeds for Jan!

30 June 2003

Time:              10.30am

Date:               Wednesday 2 July

Venue :           Facilities Department West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds

Time:              10am

Date:               Friday 4 July

Venue:            Day Surgery Unit, West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds

Jan Bloomfield, Director of Personnel and Communications at West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust, goes ‘back to the floor’ on Wednesday 2 July when she spends a day working as a gardener.  Media are invited to attend a photo-opportunity at 10.30am at the West Suffolk Hospital (report to the Facilities Department reception).

Jane Harper-Smith, Director of Modernisation, will be shadowing nursing staff at the Day Surgery Unit on Friday 4 July at 10am. A photo-opportunity for media has been arranged for 10am (report to the Day Surgery Unit reception).

They join several other senior staff and members of the Trust Board who have worked on the ‘frontline’ of services earlier in the year, shadowing regular employees to gain insight into their work.

The aim is to help directors understand the issues facing staff on a daily basis, and to experience at first hand life for workers at the forefront of caring for patients.

Chief executive John Parkes spent time in Theatres, Director of Strategy Jessica Watts shadowed staff in the Emergency Assessment Unit and Non-executive Directors Judith Lancaster and Mary Jones worked in Ward G1 and the Special Care Baby Unit respectively.

Jan’s work in the hospital gardens will be especially appreciated by her gardener colleagues as the Trust has entered the Bury in Bloom competition this year.

“It will make a nice change to be outside in the open air, providing the sun is shining,” said Jan. “But there is a serious reason for doing this, which is for me to learn at first-hand how staff do their job and the issues they face in an average working day. We want to embrace intelligent working practices, and it’s important that managers such as myself have a real understanding of the issues that colleagues deal with on a day-to-day basis.”