Skip to main content

This site is best viewed with a modern browser. You appear to be using an old version of Internet Explorer.

NHS Birthday – Thank You message from our Chair and Chief Executive Officer

05/07/2021
This article is more than two years old.

Today (Monday 5 July) is the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the NHS and so Chair, Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Bruno Holthof, have sent a personal NHS Birthday message to all Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) staff.

They said: "On behalf of the Trust Board, we want to say a heartfelt thank you for being part of our #OneTeamOneOUH. Thank you for providing the best possible care for our patients and for your compassionate excellence in this time of unprecedented challenges for all of us, both professionally and personally.

"Thank you for caring for not only the patients, families and carers who depend on you but also each other in your teams and your wider staff networks in the Trust.

"The NHS Birthday is an opportunity to thank everyone who has pulled together in the past 12 months and a chance to reflect on everything we have achieved together as #OneTeamOneOUH.

"Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and thank you to Oxford Hospitals Charity for working tirelessly alongside us in the Trust to support staff.

"And we would also like to say thank you to everyone from the teachers in our schools who have continued to educate and take care of the children of our staff to those military colleagues who were drafted in to help us during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic earlier this year.”

Jonathan and Bruno also highlighted Oxford’s role at the heart of global research into COVID-19 – not only the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine but also groundbreaking research into new treatments – because of the close working relationship between clinicians here at OUH and university academics and researchers. 

They said: "The COVID-19 pandemic may not be over but the vaccine and the new treatments which are now available have brought new hope – and that is definitely worth celebrating on our NHS Birthday."

Jonathan and Bruno signed off their message to staff by saying: "As we mark the anniversary of the founding of our NHS today, please do make the time to thank colleagues for what they do, celebrate our achievements as #OneTeamOneOUH, reflect on the highs and lows of the past year, and be kind to yourselves and each other."