Happy 74th Birthday to the NHS – a thank you from our Chair and interim Chief Executive Officer

Happy 74th Birthday to the NHS – a thank you from our Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, Chair of OUH, and Professor Meghana Pandit, Interim Chief Executive Officer at OUH, wrote to staff today to thank them for being part of our OneTeamOneOUH.

Today marks the 74th birthday of the NHS.

They said:

“Thank you for providing the best possible care for our patients and for your compassionate excellence in spite of the challenges facing us all, both professionally and personally.

“Thank you not only for your excellent care for our patients and their families and carers, but also for caring and looking after each other, your teams and your wider staff networks in the Trust.

“Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and thank you to Oxford Hospitals Charity for working tirelessly alongside us in the Trust to support staff.

“And finally, thank you to those who make it possible for us to do our jobs. The other key workers such as teachers and nursery staff, and our partners and families.

“The NHS Birthday is an opportunity for us to thank everyone who has supported each other in the past 12 months and a chance to reflect on everything we have achieved together as OneTeamOneOUH.”

From the laboratory to the bedside – finding the treatments of the future

They also mentioned the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), which is hosted by OUH, and is today holding a joint Open Day at Oxford Town Hall with our colleagues at the NIHR Oxford Health BRC. Researchers from the two organisations are showcasing some of the ground-breaking, life-saving research that takes place at the two NHS trusts in collaboration with University of Oxford researchers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the central role Oxford researchers play in global research – most notably, but by no means only, in the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the RECOVERY Trial to find effective treatments for hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19, and our world-leading gene sequencing work to identify new variants. One of the reasons for Oxford’s leading role is the close working relationship between OUH clinicians and university academics and researchers, and increasingly with colleagues at Oxford Health and Oxford Brookes University.

Our latest book

Jonathan and Meghana also wrote about our latest book - OneTeamOneOUH – Past, Present and Future is structured around the three key elements of our OUH Strategy which underpins all that we do – Our People (all staff working across the Trust), Our Patients and Our Populations. This book is full of useful facts and figures about our Trust, brings together our Vision, Values and Strategy but also finds room to celebrate great moments over the last few years from the development of a pioneering new service working as a partnership with Helen and Douglas House for children and young people with chronic conditions and long COVID to the opening of the OUH Radiotherapy Centre @Swindon.