As 2021 comes to a cold, wet and windy end, the people of Medequip continue to amaze me through what has been another challenging year. Their focus, their sense of purpose and their warmth and humanity have kept the show on the road and made my day, every day, including many weekends (with my apologies to Mrs. Griffiths). We recognise this through our Employee of the Month Award and Big Thank-You Day.
I have also been amazed by the resilience of the people we support and their families, the many fantastic community organisations out there, and the wider health and social care system. It’s a system of many moving parts and I am extremely proud of the part played by Medequip.
Through our mature relationships with supply networks and our experience in joint working with Prescribers, Commissioners, and local organisations we were able to maintain, and in some areas help with additional services, which has been so important to peoples’ quality of life and independence.
Through 2021 Medequip has continued to grow and is now working with more partners than ever. So, as a national organisation, in England and Wales, across cities, towns, villages and some spectacular countryside, I am more determined than ever that the Medequip service offer works alongside local communities. We use local businesses wherever we can, and we recruit locally. I have asked Community Catalysts to support us build a community feedback process, and each depot is building links with local organisations to ensure local people are involved in improving things.
As a leading organisation you might expect us to have a lot to say. We do, where we can add value to local or national conversations. For example, in improving the hospital discharge process, in prevention and early intervention, in the switch to Digital Telecare services, and always in increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
As a leading organisation you might also expect us to perform, and we do. Despite significant inbound supply chain issues impacting on the UK we are still completing over 99.2% of our activities on time.
But you might not know we are also an organisation of big listeners. Not passively. No, we believe listening is a doing word.
- If the NHS is to achieve its ambition of proactive, place-based health and wellbeing services,
- If Local Government wants to support people to live in places they call home, and
- If communities want to be involved, respected and supported….
For 2022, we are listening.