• Make a difference by becoming a governor at Bradford Hospitals

    Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking public and patient governors to sit on its Council.

    This is an exciting opportunity to represent the interests of service users, local communities and members of the Foundation Trust, which includes Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital.

    The Trust is looking to fill four seats in the public constituencies of Bradford West, Keighley, Shipley, and the public membership constituency of the ‘Rest of England and Wales’ for people with an interest in its hospitals who live outside the district.

    A patient governor is also being sought, from people who live outside the district but have received treatment at the Foundation Trust.

    As a governor you will be able to:

    • ensure there is robust challenge about the strategic direction of the Trust, its vision and how it is performing
    • share with the Board and Council of Governors the views of the local people you represent: actively seeking out what they think about the services provided by Bradford Teaching Hospitals
    • take part in meetings of the Council of Governors, its committees, governor training days and Joint Council of Governors/Board of Directors to represent the views from your constituencies and carry out the statutory duties of a governor

    Jacqui Maurice, Head of Corporate Governance for the Trust, said: “The Council of Governors has an important role in making our Foundation Trust publicly accountable for the services it provides.  It is important that people stand as governors so that we have patients’ voices and those of our local communities influencing the important decisions that we make.

    “We actively encourage people to take part in aspects of hospital life and this is one more way that people can get involved.”

    The Council is made up of staff, appointed governors from partner organisations and 13 elected members from public and patient constituencies. Candidates must be a Trust member, aged 16 or over and live in the area they want to represent.

    The election process is being run by the Civica Election Services.

    More information and nomination forms are available online at:

    www.cesvotes.com/BradfordTeaching or by telephone: 0208 889 9203, by email: ftnominationenquiries@cesvotes.com by text: Text 2FT BT and your name and address to 88802 or by post: Civica Election Services, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW.

    All nominations should be received by the Returning Officer, Ciara Norris, at the address or website as detailed above, by 5pm on Monday 28 October 2019.

    For an informal chat, please contact Jacqui Maurice, on: 01274 382685 or email: Jacqui.maurice@bthft.nhs.uk

    Voting papers will be distributed to members, within the relevant constituencies, on Friday, 15 November 2019. The deadline for return of completed voting papers is Thursday, 5 December 2019.

    ENDS

    For further media information, please contact communications@bthft.nhs.uk or call 01274 383901.

    Note to Editors:

    1. Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:

    Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing hospital services for the people of Bradford and communities across Yorkshire. We serve a core population of around 500,000 and provide specialist services for 1.1 million people.

    Our 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, which provides the majority of inpatient services, and St Luke’s Hospital, which predominantly provides outpatient and rehabilitation services. We also manage local community hospitals at Westwood Park, Westbourne Green, and Eccleshill.

    In early 2017, a new £28 million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals over a five-year period. It provides world-class facilities for elderly care, children’s services, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with increased single-room provision and a retail concourse.

    The new wing is a continuation of our work to improve patient experience after our new £2 million neonatal unit officially opened in January 2015. Our maternity services were recently shortlisted for the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Midwifery Service of the Year Award, recognising excellence and innovation in the provision of maternity care.

    In 2017, we also completed a £2m refurbishment of our Emergency Department (ED) as part of an ambitious vision to create a more efficient acute medicine service for the people of Bradford. It has been designed to provide a slicker and more efficient service, with faster senior clinical involvement at an early stage in the patient pathway.

    As a teaching hospital, we are at the forefront of education and development in healthcare, and have an excellent reputation for research performance. We are one of the leading centres in conducting applied research in the country, particularly in quality and safety, elderly care and rehabilitation.

    The Trust is home to the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) where researchers have led the development, validation and implementation of the award-winning Bradford Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) which helps calculate an elderly person’s risk of disability, impairment, falls and complications of chronic diseases, as well as their diminishing independence and capability. This is now being used by 98 per cent of all GPs across the country.

    Our award-winning Ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and we are one of only three sites in the United Kingdom to be enlisted in the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery Hip Fracture Care of Patients with Dementia (PERFECTED) study, which will investigate how the NHS can introduce better standards of care to improve outcomes for people with dementia.

    Follow us on Twitter: @BTHFT

    The Trust has its own Bradford Hospitals Charity: www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk/charity