Showcasing NSFT’s specialist services to England’s Chief Nurse | News and events

England’s Chief Nursing Officer has visited Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to find out more about the groundbreaking services it offers to veterans and the innovative support it provides to its staff.

Dame Ruth May travelled to Endeavour House in Ipswich on Friday (6 October) to meet staff delivering care across Norfolk and Suffolk.

During the morning, she heard more about the range of innovative services which NSFT provides for ex-servicemen and women. These include the Veterans’ Integrated Services and Operation Courage, which brings a range of mental health, financial and housing support into one place to make it easier to access.

Staff also explained more about the support which is available to colleagues. This includes the Trauma Risk Incident Management (TRIM) Service, which sees peers offers help to people impacted by difficult incidents at work, and services which support BME staff and international nurses.

Dame Ruth said: “It was a pleasure to visit nurses and health professionals in specialist services at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. 

“I had the opportunity to hear about the support offered to staff and veterans. Thank you to Diane Palmer and the team for the passion and commitment you show in the work you do.”

Diane Palmer, Director of Specialist Services, is responsible for the portfolio of services which were showcased and arranged the visit.

She said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Dame Ruth to NSFT. Our teams were really excited to showcase the amazing work which they are doing and some of the fantastic initiatives they are spearheading for the benefit of staff and service users.

“We were able to explain more about a really broad range of projects and Dame Ruth was very interested to hear how much we are doing in these areas. It was fantastic to get the opportunity to share the good practice taking place at NSFT which can hopefully be replicated elsewhere in the country.”

Tumi Banda, Interim Chief Nurse with NSFT, said: “We would like to pass on our thanks to Ruth and her colleague Kemi for spending the morning with us.

“We are really proud of the team and their dedication to looking after both veterans and our own staff. This is particularly important as evidence shows that caring for staff has a positive knock-on effect and means they are better able to provide excellent care for patients.

“We will continue to develop these important initiatives over the coming months so that they bring further benefits to both our service users and staff.”