Life is never boring at Europe's largest Women's Hospital. I am immensely proud of what we do at Liverpool Women's. Everyday our staff do amazing things for patients. You will have heard me say before that whilst we get it right for the vast majority of our patients, I am the first to say that we don't get it right every time. A significant part of being a good leader is responding positively to and accepting when you can do better and I try very hard to do this whenever there is a criticism of our services. However, if I feel that criticism of our Hospital is unjust or unfair and not evidence based then as my team would say; I become like a lioness defending her cubs.
An important part of being a good leader is to nurture and develop the NHS staff of the future. Today Gail Naylor, Director of Nursing, Midwifery & Operations had a final year Student Midwife shadowing her to gain an insight into how a hospital is run. As Gail and I were discussing the issues I referred to above it was great to test out some of my thinking and get a contribution from somebody who is about to embark on their career. Good luck in your career Aimi, I know you will be a fabulous Midwife.
I am the lead Chief Executive across Cheshire and Merseyside for Workforce, Education and Training. On Tuesday I chaired a meeting with a number of senior colleagues from across the patch. We have active engagement from Directors of Nursing, Medical Directors, Directors of Human Resources, Directors of Public Health and the Post Graduate Dean for Medical Education to name but a few. There will be challenging times ahead for the NHS workforce as we face an ever increasing ageing population and high levels of demand for emergency services.
We try to actively engage with our patients and the wider community through social media, primarily Twitter. The Trust has over 3000 followers and in addition our Hewitt Fertility Centre has 500 followers. We actively monitor and respond to patient and relatives feedback on our twitter feed which is predominantly positive. We have also used our Twitter for interactive sessions with community midwives, our consultants and our Infant Feeding Team. It is great to see so many former patients giving us updates on the progress their little ones are making. A number of our staff also actively use Twitter.
We have some very talented individuals at Liverpool Women's I am delighted that Angela Douglas our Scientific Director for Genetics has been appointed as the new Chair of the British Society for Genetic Medicine. Angela's appointment highlights the skills, influence and specialist genetics service offered by Liverpool Women's Hospital for the population of Cheshire and Merseyside. Her appointment also highlights the respect that her colleagues and peers have for her contribution to Genetics at a national level.
Michelle Turner our Director of Human Resources and I spent some time in our Gynaecology Theatres earlier this week as part of our senior team visibility programme. A big thank you to all of the staff who took the time to chat with us.
Have a great weekend.