There’s a long way to go. Everyone is saying the same thing. This is not over…
It leaves me wondering how near the beginning we are, or how close to the end.
We are in a a strange place; parts of the NHS, catching its collective breath and other parts, flat-out and catching up.
One thing is for certain, this has been a helluva-time for the NHS and everyone working in it. Covid has changed everything. How we work, where we work and what we work at.
If it’s true, there is a long way to go, it’s fair to say we’ve come a long way.
Born on the 5th July, 1948, the NHS has seen us through good times and bad, highs a lows. Times of national prosperity and times of austerity. Times of disaster and celebration. Resilient, flexible and still the most admired healthcare system in the world.
The theme that runs through the years, like the stripe in toothpaste, is the commitment of the people who staff, run and make the NHS what it is.
If we think about it, there is no such thing as the NHS. The NHS is a vision that people, like us, buy into. A shared and common purpose to be there for our families, neighbours, friends and strangers when happenstance takes away what we take for granted.
There in sickness, there when disaster strikes, accidents happen, there when we fall and when we need help, to get back on our feet.
This Sunday, we will be celebrating the success of the NHS, seeing us though these dark Covid days. Congratulating each other, rightly, for playing our part in turning the NHS upside down and inside out, coping with a virus we still don’t understand, facing huge challenges.
For some it has proved deadly. Robbed us of friends and family. A devastating time we will remember for a lifetime.
For others, out of the darkness, it has been an opportunity to create new ways of working and innovation.
At the Academy, we have seen the best of NHS creativity. You have shared new ways of working and out of that has come the pledge… there is no going back. The experiences of Covid will be our stepping stone into a new future.
Let greater efficiency, compassion, transformation, new and better be the Covid legacy.
New and better has always been the Academy’s aim, to share success and build on it. Thousands of ideas that work, over the years, shared with the sole intention of improving the best of what the NHS can do.
Today is the time for us all to say thank you to the NHS, for meeting this once in a lifetime challenge.
We want to add our thanks and admiration but also we want to say thank you for supporting the Academy, helping to build it over the years, into the go-to place for sharing excellence.
Enjoy the celebrations, enjoy being part of this great national enterprise we call the NHS and thank you for being part of a collective effort to improve by sharing… that we call the Academy of Fabulous Stuff.