Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is continuing to hold online board meetings that can be attended by the public via a digital link.

David Walker, Chair of the Trust, has made this short video to explain some of the key topics discussed at the July 20 meeting.

David pays attention to the importance of patient experience:

“We need to learn from the experience of those who use our services, so we were glad to hear from a former patient at the Whiteleaf hospital in Aylesbury. Maybe ‘glad’ isn’t the right word since her first encounter with the ward wasn’t good enough.

“However, she reported that ward managers had listened to her suggestions for doing things better, and during a second admission had found improvements. Such feedback is vital.”

David notes on tasks that had taken a ‘back seat’ in the heat of COVID:

“The Board heard of various ways in which are trying to get back on track – I won’t say ‘after COVID’, because the pandemic isn’t over – but as we adapt. A trust like ours has to ensure staff are up to date on their knowledge, training and registrations – things that necessarily took second place during the heat of COVID. Now we are pushing hard on appraisals for clinical staff.”

And he stresses the vital role of research, taking brain health as a particular example:

“One set of opportunities you want to open to all staff – nurses, speech therapists, dentists and well as our doctors – lies in research. Helping them step away from the front line and pursue studies that will bring better understanding of how the brain and mind function; of dementia; of how we might better organise community medicine, and so on. We already work closely with University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes, but we want to do more.

“It’s vital – to take one example – that we try to stay one step ahead in our understanding of dementia. The number of cases is growing because, let’s face it, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are getting older, along with the rest of England. Research is needed to help develop new therapies, new interventions and, perhaps, new ways of preventing decline in brain health.”