Ep 19. A structured but tailored offer of support, Annie Laverty & Will Warburton

On Episode 19 of NHE’s Finger on the Pulse podcast, host Matt Roberts is joined by Annie Laverty, Chief Experience Officer at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and Will Warburton, Director of Improvement at the Health Foundation, discussing an innovative ‘Corona Voice’ staff wellbeing programme being ran at the trust.

Annie explained: “Looking after your workforce is really important. It makes sense from a human perspective, as you want to hold onto good staff.

“The NHS relies on the goodwill of people being deeply committed to a purpose to provide the best care to patients, but we know that providing that care sometimes comes at a cost to individuals.

“NHS organisations need to do all that they can to protect staff wellbeing because we know that it is inextricably linked to the care that patients receive, and also the safety and reliability of those organisations.”

The trust’s Corona Voice programme came out of a project being undertaken before the pandemic, to provide more up-to-date data and staff feedback to the trust and which allowed Northumbria Healthcare NHS FT, alongside support from Will and the Health Foundation team, to expand the scope of the project and better understand and support their trust colleagues through the challenges of dealing with Covid-19 and hospital care.

Listen to the full episode of NHE’s Finger on the Pulse podcast with Annie and Will above.