Delivering what matters to our community: 2024-2028
NHS Orkney has formally launched its new five-year strategy, setting out the organisation’s ambition for the future and its promise to our community.
The strategy has been developed after a three-month engagement period where patients, our community and staff were asked: what matters most to you, which NHS Orkney has listened to and acted on.
We have listened really carefully to the many powerful stories and feedback we have received and today we launch our new strategy which sets out how we will work together to look after our community and provide excellent care.
The strategy focuses on five key areas:
- People
By 2028 we will: ensure NHS Orkney is a great place to work
- Patient safety, quality, and experience
By 2028 we will: consistently deliver safe and high-quality care to our community
- Performance
By 2028 we will: within our budget, ensure our patients receive timely and equitable access to care and services and use our resources effectively
- Potential
By 2028 we will: ensure innovation, transformation, education and learning are at the forefront of our continuous improvement
- Place
By 2028 we will: be a key partner in leading the delivery of place-based care which improves health outcomes and reduces health inequalities for our community
Meghan McEwen, NHS Orkney Board Chair, said: “We’ve heard from many hundreds of people about what matters most to you. We’ve also reflected on previous strategies and why it is time for a new approach. This strategy will be different because it will be brought to life every day in all we do.
Our new strategy provides a really clear roadmap for how we will continuously improve as an organisation. We want to be known for consistently looking after our community and providing excellent care and the launch of our new strategy today builds on the good progress we have made to date. We are determined to follow through on what we say we are going to do.”
The three-month engagement period between January and March 2024 was led by the Chair and Chief Executive of NHS Orkney. During this period, we ran a survey which had 230 responses from our community, 79 responses to our staff survey and we ran 22 community and partner face-to-face sessions, with 424 summary and individual responses recorded. The new strategy incorporates the main local, regional, and national priorities that are required of the Health Board and critically, it includes setting out how we will focus on and measure progress in the areas that matter most to our local community.
Laura Skaife-Knight, Chief Executive at NHS Orkney, said; “I committed in my 100-Day Report that was published last year to prioritising reconnecting with our patients and staff and this exercise has been one of the ways we have followed through on this commitment.
Our strategy clearly outlines to our patients, community, partners and staff where we want to get to, how we will get there and how we will monitor and share our progress along the way, so we are consistently open and transparent.
It also provides a ‘compass’ to guide our decision-making and becomes how we will be held to account by our community, patients, partners and staff. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories and feedback that have helped to make our new strategy so meaningful.
At the heart of this strategy is our determination to look after our community well and deliver excellent care and improved outcomes for our patients. This is an important moment as it marks the next exciting chapter for NHS Orkney.”
When we asked our community what means most to you – this is what you told us and why these areas are at the heart of our new strategy.
- Providing high quality, patient-centred care
- Timely access to care, reducing waiting times and better visibility of waiting times
- Improved communication – with patients, between agencies/partners and with other Health Boards
- Improving access to: - GPs and Primary Care - Mental Health Services - Dentists and Orthodontists - Ophthalmology and Opticians
- One Orkney – equity of approach to health and care for all (whether living on the mainland or on the ferry-linked isles) wherever possible
- Access to local services where deliverable
- Honesty and transparency – what patients and our community want and expect and what services NHS Orkney will and won’t offer in the future
- Improvements to how information is shared between partners/Health Boards to ensure we deliver more seamless care for patients
- Helping young people to know what a career at NHS Orkney looks like and supporting this
The strategy sets out in a very simple way NHS Orkney’s plans for 2024-2028, and how we will respond to the feedback we have heard, and highlights the milestones in Year 1 (2024/25) that the Board wants to achieve.
You can read the strategy in full hereand engagement report here.