It has been a busy few weeks at Liverpool Women's. We had a great event at the beginning of May with our Board of Directors, Governors, Commissioners and a significant number of our senior clinical leaders. The event gave us an opportunity to share our financial projections for the next five years and in that context, to gain a shared understanding of our strategic options for the future to ensure that we continue to provide safe and sustainable services for our patients. We have continued over the past few weeks to work through with the leadership of our clinicians, the most appropriate clinical models for the future. The challenges faced by the NHS can at times be daunting however at Liverpool Women's we are really excited to embrace the challenges and work together to identify the solutions. A big thank you to all of our staff who joined us at this event and contributed so openly and willingly. I will share more with you over the next few months.
This year marks my sixth year as CEO of Liverpool Women's. When I came into post a number of consultants expressed their frustration that senior managers were transient and only used the organisation as a stepping stone on their CV. I promised those people at that time that I would commit to the organisation and that I would recruit an executive team with the same commitment. Vanessa Harris our Director of Finance this year marks her fifth year at Liverpool Women's and Michelle Turner our Director of Workforce has been with us for four years. Jonathan Herod our Medical Director has been a Consultant at LWH for many years (although he would like you to believe that he is much younger than his years of service indicate) and this year marks his fourth year as Medical Director.
Over the past few years we have invested in developing the leadership skills of our people. The highlight of this week has been the appointment of Dianne Brown as our new Director of Nursing and Midwifery. Dianne has been a senior nurse leader at LWH for 8 years. It is fantastic to have seen her grow from a Ward Manager to Director of Nursing and Midwifery. As well as members of the Board of Directors and a professional External Advisor to the recruitment panel, we also had our Clinical Director of Obstetrics and a patient on the panel. Well done Dianne we are very proud of you and I know you will provide positive leadership to our Midwives and Nurses to ensure that they are supported to do the great things they do everyday for the women and families who access our services.