Homerton Life May-June 2008 v5 - Homerton University Hospital

Flowers in bloom –who looks after our gardens? BY ROBERT DUKE‘Roses are red, violets are blue,’ may be allthe horticultural knowledge required tocompose a Valentine’s message, but thoseresponsible for the Trust’s plants, flowerbeds and gardens need to know a greatdeal more than that.Fortunately, the Trust’s gardeners, MauriceEmbley and David Buckingham, know theironions. They can be seen trimming andpruning, watering and weeding, in all weathers.New staff governors electedBY MEREL REININKIn February, three new staff governorswere elected to fill vacancies on theCouncil of Governors: David Griffith(KSF lead), Jamie Mcfetters (AGMQuality DSO) and Dr Swee Fang(consultant neonatologist).Homerton staff elect six members of the 27-strong council; four clinical staff and twonon-clinical staff, reflecting the overall ratioof clinical staff and other staff employed inthe hospital.The council of governors, headed by chairMichael Cassidy, link the Board of Directorsto the Trust membership and the community.They hold regular meetings withmanagement, which members can attend.Governors have a number of roles. Amongstothers, they provide feedback from and tomembers; provide views to the Board onplans for future developments; appoint theAt this time of the year they are busy tidying upand preparing for spring. This involves a varietyof odd jobs, preparing the flower beds andedging the lawns. What will they be planting?That all depends on what is available. Mauriceand David explain that daffodils, tulips andspring bedding are all flowering in the Trust atthe moment, with the mild weather leading toearly flowering.Maurice and David explain the most rewardingaspects of their roles are being outdoors andmaking things look nice. They describe theirwork as therapeutic and are proud of theMemorial Garden, which they built.But it is not only Homerton’s flora with whichthey have to contend; they regularly comeacross hedgehogs and squirrels, and they claimthe blackbirds take a keen interest in their work.What’s the worst aspect of their work? Theysay there isn’t one, though when Maurice isdistracted by the weeding, David will admit thatgritting and clearing snow is perhaps lesstherapeutic than watering the window boxes.Trust chair and non-executive directors; andreceive the Trust’s annual report andaccounts. Governors are not involved inmatters of day-to-day management, such assetting budgets and staff pay.David Griffith commented: “Staff-electedgovernors act as a bridge between staff andthe hospital board and it is a privilege torepresent staff opinions and concerns. I lookforward to getting into my role more in thecoming months.”Didn’t cast your vote in this election? Pleasenote that all staff are eligible in principle tovote in staff governor elections, but you doneed to be registered as a Trust member. Allstaff who joined the Trust since 2005 areautomatically registered as members. If youjoined the Trust before this date and haven’tjoined yet, contact the membership office onext 5221.What staff say…Last month the results of thenational annual staff surveywere released. At Homerton,the survey was sent to 800randomly selected staff, with34% completing it.Following analysis by theHealthcare Commission thefollowing themes emerged:Staff returning the survey ratedHomerton as significantly betterthan other trusts in the followingareas: care of patients is the Trust’stop priority communication at Homerton isgood staff are satisfied with the waymanagers value their work staff feel involved in decisionsregarding work the Trust takes effective actionwhere staff are bullied orharassed by other staff equalities and IT training isavailable counselling services are available staff would stay in the NHS ifthey left the Trust.We were rated significantly worsethan other trusts in the followingareas: appraisal and PDP in the last12 months health and safety training issues with meeting conflictingdemands at work accessibility of hot water, soapetc for patients and visitors provision of advice aboutexercise/assisting with the costof gym membership considering leaving current rolefor more pay.We are in the process of lookingat how we address the issuesraised by staff as part of thesurvey. Part of this is to gathermore information about theindicators, however, at an earlystage we are looking to takeaction on appraisal and PDP rates,mandatory training, accessibilityof hot water and soap forpatients and visitors as wellimproving the staff healthoffering with our partner Vie Life.HomertonLife May 2008 11