Now you’re part of an important NHS team and a forward moving Trust
We are looking forward to you starting in your new role. We know starting a new job is a big step and there’s lots of information to take on board. Here we bring together the information you’ll need to get started.
A message to all new starters from our Chief Executive Nick Hulme
Hello, my name is Nick Hulme and it’s my privilege to be Chief Executive at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. I want to offer you a huge welcome and to say a great big thank you for choosing to work with us. But perhaps more importantly, for that very important decision that you made at some stage in your life to give something of yourself, your skills, your intellect, and your compassion to people who need you.
The decision that you’ve made to give something of yourself to our communities, whatever your role is in the hospital or in the community, is such an important decision. This is a real opportunity to make a difference to the people that we serve.
Every day we treat thousands of people in our hospitals, in our community hospitals, and in our communities. Every day you’re working with your colleagues for people facing some of the most difficult times of their lives, and you’re there to support them. Whatever your role is in this amazing organisation, you’re making unique and special difference to thousands of people who live in our community.
It’s also important that we look after you. I see this as you taking the next stage in your career, and it’s really important for me that we give you every opportunity for you to develop to be the best that you can possibly be. To stretch you, to look at development opportunities, to work with your colleagues, to work with our education teams, to give you that opportunity to excel. Please always look for those opportunities. Look for the opportunities to grow and we will support you to be the best that you can.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s really important that when you start that you shouldn’t feel frightened about asking people the way that we do things because we might not be getting it right. So please ask and be curious. But most importantly, raise concerns when you see them.
Stay in touch with what’s happening across the organisation. Every Monday a newsletter will appear in your inbox to tell you what’s happened right across the organisation. The new innovations, the new ideas encouraging you to get involved. If you use social media follow us on Instagram, X, or Facebook so you can get that up-to-date information and contribute on those platforms.
Sometimes life can be hard. Life at work can be hard as it can be in our personal lives at times. We are there to support you at those difficult times as well. We’ve invested hundreds of thousands of pounds into staff wellbeing and all the information is available on our intranet site. I hope you never ever have to use those services, but if you do, we’re there to support you at those difficult, tough times because sadly, they will happen.
Stay in touch with us, let us know what you see, but most importantly, enjoy what you do and take great pride every day in improving thousands and thousands of lives for our local communities. Thank you.
More about East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
We provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people. Our dedicated staff provide care from:
- main hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich
- community hospitals
- surgeries
- community and high street clinics
- in patients’ own homes
We are the largest NHS organisation in East Anglia, employing more than 12,000 staff.
Several of our clinical services are among the largest in England:
- acute children’s services
- oncology
- trauma and orthopaedics
- general surgery
- urology
- ophthalmology
We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of development opportunities and flexible working options.
Our Organisational Development team focuses on the outcomes of the National Staff Survey. The results of the survey help to shape the staff experience plan for the coming year. From this we focus on areas for improvements.
The communications and engagement teams support in all other staff survey promotion. They track activity to avoid survey fatigue. However, we prefer to use listening events where possible. As we find the best results come from face-to-face conversations. We will always advise ward to ward visits for clinical staff engagement.
Map of ESNEFT hospital sites
We have buildings across the local area where we provide care.
- We have two large hospital sites at Colchester and Ipswich.
- We have community services in north Essex at Clacton Hospital, Halstead Hospital, and Harwich Hospital.
- We have community services in east Suffolk at Aldeburgh Hospital, Bluebird Lodge, and Felixstowe Hospital.
- We have a Community Diagnostic Centre at Clacton Hospital.
The ESNEFT strategy
Our ambition is to provide the best care and experience, and to increase equality in health outcomes.
Our objectives remain to:
- Keep people in control of their health.
- Lead the integration of care.
- Develop our centres of excellence.
- Support and develop our staff.
- Drive technology enabled care.
We place specific emphasis on standardising the care we provide for our patients and staff. By embracing the best of what we do and learning from best practice. This is the ESNEFT way.
Our clinical strategy and other strategy documents are available on our document library.
ESNEFT behavioural values and beliefs
For everyone this means:
Optimistic: We will work together positively to make time matter for all our patients and staff.
Appreciative: We understand and value the role we all have in delivering better patient care every day.
Kind: We will value diversity and provide a caring and listening environment for all our patients and staff.
For me this means:
Optimistic
- I will be a visible champion of improvement.
- I will be reliable, someone people can depend on.
- I will build and develop positive working relationships.
- I will take ownership of my own actions and performance.
Appreciative
- I will be clear on what is expected from me and my team.
- I will behave and use language which demonstrates respect and courtesy for others.
- I will celebrate success and the contribution everyone brings.
- I will embrace feedback, admit to mistakes and know I can ask for help.
Kind
- I will speak up to ensure patients and colleagues are safe from harm.
- I will listen to and respect the views of others.
- I will be approachable, helpful and polite.
- I will treat everyone as an individual.
ESNEFT’s key philosophy
We have a simple philosophy: time matters.
Time matters for our patients, their families and our staff.
By focusing on time, we remove unnecessary stress and frustration to give our patients a better experience. We also want to make sure you have more time to care and make the most of your skills.
Time matters in all aspects of the way we do our job:
- The way we plan clinical models of care.
- The way we interact with patients.
- The way we provide digital infrastructure.
- How we manage staff recruitment.
- How we manage the procurement of goods and services.
Nick Hulme, Chief Executive, describes Time Matters as:
“We know that being ill is hugely stressful for people who are sick, for the people who care for them, and the people who love them.
“In my mind, there are two elements of stress. One is the stress of being ill, the fear, the pain, and the anxiety about not knowing what’s coming next. Sometimes it can be fairly minor illnesses that can generate a huge amount of anxiety. Other times it can be quite serious illnesses that can create that same level of anxiety. The way that we can support people through that stress is with kindness, compassion, and care.
“However, we also know that there’s a huge amount of stress caused by the logistics of giving care. Cancelled operations, long waits, difficulty with car parking, difficulty with signage, all those hygiene factors that we know causes a lot of stress. We also know that we can do something about that.
“When we were thinking about our philosophy, we thought about what are the differences that we can make to those people that we serve, to our patients and to our communities. That’s why we came up with Time Matters.
“Time is the only scarce commodity. It’s something that we can never replace, and it’s something that we need to value. We need to value the time of our patients and their carer’s and their loved ones, and we also need to value the time of our staff. Time Matters is really at the heart of everything we do to value time. We know, for example, for somebody over 75, if they spend a week in hospital on average, they have 1000 days left and I don’t know anybody that would choose to spend any of those days in hospital.
“We know that people were coming to hospital, particularly in a pre-COVID era for outpatient appointments that could be done remotely. For information that could be given over the phone or virtually. All that time that people were wasting getting to the hospital parking, attending the appointment and then going home, is now time that they can spend with their loved ones. We also know that people were taking days off work to come to outpatient appointments. Meaning we were not valuing their time.
“I know how frustrating some of our internal systems are in terms of duplication and lack of investment in technology. Which means that we’re not valuing your time as members of staff. So our commitment is to value your time and most importantly, value of the time of our patients, their families and those that love them.”
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
The communities we serve are diverse and we want our employees to represent this. Having a diverse and empowered team enables us to give our patients the best possible care. We are committed to treating everyone equally and with respect.
Our Trust has an EDI team to promote the Trust’s values and works closely with all our staff networks. They make sure that content is accessible to all and not just specific cohorts.
We will promote equality, celebrate and value diversity and overcome any form of discrimination.
Find out more about our approach to creating an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace in our policy over at our staff guides section of the website.
Outside of your work at the hospital sites in East Suffolk and North Essex
Life in east Suffolk and north Essex has something for everyone.
There is a wide range of housing and leisure opportunities. With our vibrant towns and city, quaint villages and secluded coastal retreats.
Housing options include stylish urban apartments to secluded rural hideaways. You are sure to find something that suits you here to make your home.
There is an excellent choice of both state and private schools in the region. Along with great higher education and university options.
London is less than two hours away by train. Whilst international travel from Stanstead is around an hour’s drive away.
Closer to home, there is spectacular coastline and Constable country to visit.
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