Save the date for our HHFT Annual General Meeting 2022! Join us at the University of Winchester (West Downs Centre) on the evening of Tuesday 19 July as we celebrate 10 years of Hampshire Hospitals. Together, we'll look back at what we have achieved, share what's happening right now at HHFT, and explore some of the innovative and exciting ways we are designing our future. We’ll be announcing further details soon, with the latest event information available here.

We are delighted to be welcoming Andy Hyett to HHFT in September following his appointment as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Andy is a highly experienced leader having been COO at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust for the last seven years; including during the Novichok attacks and COVID-19. Prior to this, he held a range of operational roles in Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester hospitals. It is always great to welcome someone back to the Hampshire Hospitals family!

Earlier this month we held our latest clinical senate review as part of the new 'Hampshire Together: Modernising our Hospitals and Health Services' hospital programme. Our great team of HHFT clinicians were there to answer questions on their speciality and how things would look under a variety of configuration options. The senate will then provide the trust with a clinical view of the merits or otherwise of the various options, something which is a really important step in the programme’s process.

We were pleased to welcome local Member of Parliament Steve Brine to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) on 29th April, with a visit focused on reviewing the progress the trust has made and is making on reducing the elective care backlog and on the improvements to maternity services. Find out more about last month's visit here.

In recent weeks we have been celebrating our staff as part of a host of national and international awareness days. On 27 April we celebrated national administrative professionals day, saying thank you to all administrative staff, whilst 5 May marked international day of the midwife as we showcased the fantastic work our maternity teams do each and every day. On 12 May a range of celebrations took place as we marked international nurses day in style with our nursing teams and colleagues. Head to our social media channels to see more about each celebration.

We have teamed up with local charity George’s Rockstars to provide musical instruments and a music therapist at our Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, brightening the days of smaller inpatients. Music therapy is being introduced to help children and young people have the best possible experience whilst in hospital, making them less homesick and providing them with a new way to communicate how they are feeling. You can find out more about the initiative here.