On the NHS’s 73rd birthday I want to take this opportunity to thank both staff and the community for their ongoing support during another year of highs and lows.

It has been an extremely challenging year for the NHS, and the country as a whole, but also a year of hope.

I want to thank you all for many things – not least for your resolve and determination throughout the year.

Firstly to the communities we are proud to serve, thank you for continuing to follow the guidance. You have worked so hard to ensure that our organisation does not become overwhelmed with hospital admissions so that NCIC could continue to care for patients in the community in the best way possible. Thank you for your understanding and compassion when we ourselves have had to find new ways of delivering our services to you. Your kind words and gestures have held our staff up during some of the most challenging times any of us have ever experienced during our NHS careers.  

To all of our staff here at NCIC, I want to thank you for your unwavering dedication to your roles, you have all worked incredibly hard under some extreme circumstances and although it has been difficult you have still managed to reach some incredible milestones in this past year.

I want to say thank you to the vaccination teams. The Trust made history in December when the roll out of the COVID vaccine began.

The historic moment took place on 8 December 2020 when Mike Walker – a consultant surgeon and the West Cumberland Hospital’s longest serving consultant – had his vaccination.

At the beginning of April, almost 31,000 vaccines had been administered to Trust staff, local partners including care homes, North West Ambulance Service, CHOC, Hospice and Social Care staff. It has been a huge and complex effort by multiple teams which helped ensure that we were able to keep delivering our services.

We could not have achieved all this without the skill and dedication of our people along with the support of thousands of returners, volunteers, other keyworkers and, of course, the public who played their part by following the social distancing rules.

Thank you to everyone who has had their vaccinations to keep yourselves, your families, your friends and your colleagues safe.

While all this has been going on we have still managed to deliver high quality care and – in the last 12 months – have completed the building of our new multi-million pound cancer centre at the Cumberland Infirmary. The exciting project has created a modern state-of-the-art environment for staff, patients, carers and their relatives. 

We have also managed to open an extension to the Same Day Emergency Care Unit (SDEC) at the West Cumberland Hospital to improve the care of patients, and been able to deliver much more care to our patients outside of hospital through our Integrated Care Communities. 

Our Maternity teams across NCIC have delivered 2,624 babies in the last 12 months alone, caring for women and families every day. 

Thank you for the countless small acts of kindness you undertake every day.

Thank you and happy 73RD Birthday to us, the NHS.

 Lyn Simpson

Chief Executive

NCIC