He recently felt compelled to share with all Ipswich Hospital staff this story about compassion and kindness in the NHS: "This week I want to talk about the hundreds of staff and volunteers who go the extra mile every day. I was reminded of this in an email I received earlier this week from a husband whose wife needed an urgent blood test. She was sent to our phlebotomy department but had been wrongly informed that it closed at 6 pm. It was closed when she arrived and they both became distressed. A nurse whose name they cannot remember stopped and offered her help. In the end the nurse herself took them to a clinic room, took the patient’s blood, took it to the lab, ensured it was tested and made sure the patient’s mind was put at rest by letting her know the result.
As I walk round the hospital and talk to staff and patients, I see and hear about this level of kindness and compassion every day. I see evidence of people trying so hard to make the hospital safe despite the unprecedented levels of acute activity we have experienced over the past couple of months. I see people working long beyond their contracted hours with absolutely no expectation of additional pay – they are doing it because, as one senior nurse said to me recently, it’s the right thing to do for our patients."