Membership Matters

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

October 2025

I am pleased to let you know about the outcome of the election of governors to the various vacancies and where existing governors had finished their three-year term of office. governors can stand for re-election if they have served less than three terms. Seven new governors were elected and four were re-elected.

• East Coast constituency: Linda Wild (re-elected) and Jean Flanagan
• Ryedale & East Yorkshire constituency: Ian Foxley and Sandra Fox
• Selby constituency: Wendy Loveday (re-elected) and Peter Morley
• York constituency: Nick Bosanquet and Mary Clark (re-elected)
• Staff Scarborough & Bridlington constituency: Carol Popplestone
• Staff York constituency: Julie Southwell (re-elected) and Elena Clerici

I am also very pleased to inform you that Rukmal Abeysekera, our present Lead Governor, will be stepping down as a Governor at the end of October because she has been appointed as one of our Non-executive Directors (NEDs). She has been nominated by the University of York to be the University stakeholder NED (given our status as a teaching trust) in place of Dr Matt Morgan, who ended his term of office in July.

Governors, including the new ones, will vote for who will succeed Rukmal as the Lead Governor. I am taking this opportunity to pay tribute to Rukmal who has been an outstanding Lead Governor. She is hardworking, conscientious, thorough, constructive, and wants the Trust to provide great services to the people we serve, while at the same time to be a great place to work for our 12,000 workforce. I have no doubt that she will bring these valuable qualities to her new role as a NED from 1 November, along with the valuable relationships she has with the University of York to help the Trust with its teaching, research, and innovation activities.

Since my previous message, Chief Executive Simon Morritt retired at the end of September. Andy Bertram, our Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive, is the Interim Chief Executive until Clare Smith starts as our new Chief Executive on 24 November.

Sadly, our excellent Chief Nurse, Dawn Parkes has announced that she will also be retiring at the end of March. The job began advertising on 13 October, with interviews taking place in the second week of December.

Please be assured that everyone is working hard and doing their best to reduce waiting times for patients in all our services, whether it be for diagnostics, cancer diagnosis and treatment, outpatient appointments, surgery, and in our emergency departments.

Interestingly though for the last four months we have had the same number of patients brought by ambulance to our emergency departments as in the highest month in last winter – and yet the autumn has barely begun, never mind winter! In addition we are receiving higher numbers of referrals from GPs.

With my thanks for your interest in the Trust.

Best wishes

Martin Barkley

Chair

Celebration of Achievement 2025: our winners

On Thursday 16 October, our glittering awards ceremony and one of the biggest events on the Trust calendar, Celebration of Achievement, took place at Scarborough Spa.

The special night, made possible by Schneider Electric and our other generous sponsors, is dedicated to our Trust colleagues and their hard work and contributions to healthcare.

This year’s nominations reflected the wide range of skill, innovation, and dedication that underpins our Trust values and continues to improve care for our patients.

Andrew Bertram, Interim Chief Executive, said: “It was a brilliant evening and a chance to say thank you to everyone who goes the extra mile, day in and day out. The stories behind the awards were inspiring and a real reminder of the difference our people make - I’m incredibly proud to be part of it.”

As part of the nomination process for the Patient Choice category, nominators shared their stories and explained why they’d nominated colleagues. You can watch the Patient Choice award nomination video on YouTube.

Congratulations to our winners!

• Living our Values: Nick Griffiths, Security Officer
• Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion: AHP Leadership Team
• Quality Improvement: Preoperative Assessment Unit Team
• Excellence in Collaboration: Allison Bradley, Advanced Clinical Specialist
• Leader of the Year: Gary Adamson, Digital Project Improvement Manager
• Patient Choice: Rhys Standfield and Christina Winkfield
• Team of the Year (Non-Clinical): Business Intelligence and Insights Team
• Team of the Year (Clinical): Emergency Department (and SDEC) Team and the Enhanced Care Unit Team
• Chief Executive's Award: Ed Smith, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Deputy Medical Director

50 years of play in healthcare

This month, our Play Team marked a very special milestone – the 50^th anniversary of Play in Healthcare Week.

Hosted by the Society of Health Play Specialists (SoHPS), the week celebrates the vital role of play in helping children cope with illness and treatment. To mark the occasion, colleagues pulled out all the stops. Children on the wards joined in the fun by painting colourful celebration signs.

Play Specialist Lynda Robson, who has been part of the team for over 21 years, said the week had been “great fun,” giving everyone a chance to look back through the decades.

“We looked through a photo album and even spotted a child who is now a nurse! It’s been great seeing all the changes and all the special memories we have created for children and their families.”

Play in hospitals builds and establishes trust between children and healthcare professionals, provides children with a means to communicate and express their feelings, and can reduce anxiety and stress.

Here’s to 50 wonderful years of play and to the play teams who make a real difference every day!

Healthcare Support Worker named York Press Health Hero

Chloe Slater, a Healthcare Support Worker in York Hospital’s Maternity Unit, was named Health Hero at this year’s York Press Community Pride Awards.

Chloe was recognised for supporting vulnerable women and babies by organising a collection to help refugee families at Christmas.

Chloe collected donations of essential items such as nappies and babygrows to make sure the new mums, many of whom arrived in our area with nothing, had what they needed.

She said: “Winning the award means so much to me professionally and personally, and knowing that somewhere there is someone that really did believe in me enough to nominate me is something that I will always remember.”

Chloe plans to extend her idea to become a year-round baby bank, with support from midwife Jill Robertson. Well done, Chloe!

Get involved

Public Council of governors meetings

These meetings are held throughout the year and give you the chance to see first-hand the workings of the Council of governors speaking up and representing the views of their constituents.

The Council of governors acts as the voice of the community, ensuring local people have a say in the running of their hospital. governors are either elected by member of the Trust or appointed by appropriate stakeholder partners, which includes nominated representatives from the Local Authority, University, and other partner organisations.

You can read all about your local governors on our website. If you would like to contact any of the governors, email [email protected], including the name of the governor you wish to contact. 

The next meeting takes place on Wednesday 10 December 2025. See all governor meeting times on our website.

Public Board of Directors meetings

These are held every other month and give you the opportunity to observe the Board of Directors on how decisions are made and what the challenges are of managing a NHS Trust.

Upcoming dates:

• Wednesday 26 November 2025, 9.30am
• Wednesday 28 January 2026, 9am
• Wednesday 25 February 2026, 9.30am

More details on Board of Directors Meetings can be found here.

Star Award finalists

All our staff and volunteers deserve recognition - but there are many that go above and beyond the call of duty to make the Trust a better service - with hard work, exciting new ideas and simply by putting patients first. Click here to read why they were nominated and learn how they made a difference. If you would like to nominate someone for a Star Award complete the online form.

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