COLUMN: Andrew Morgan - Help us make NHS best it can be

I must start 2017 with a very big thank you to our teams across Lincolnshire who, rather than spending the extended holiday period celebrating with their own loved ones, were continuing to deliver care to the most vulnerable members of our communities.

It brings me great pride to see the contributions services make to the community, not just in delivering excellent healthcare, but for their wider involvement with patients and the public. In the last month alone, this has included raising hundreds of pounds for charity through a bake sale in Bourne, a visit from Santa for children at the Johnson Community Hospital in Spalding, community nursing staff donating items to a food bank in lieu of Christmas cards in Grantham and celebrating the memory of loved ones in Boston through the Butterfly Hospice’s Light up a Life service.

I have spent some time in recent weeks seeing the NHS from the other side, visiting a relative in hospital following a fairly major operation. I saw fantastic care and compassion from everyone in the hospital. I could have done without such a reminder of why the NHS is our society at its best but I remain eternally grateful for it and I will continue to be its biggest fan and advocate.

I know that 2017 will bring forth new and different challenges but we will continue to meet them with the same level of passion, determination and commitment as ever. We all make the NHS what it is; please join us in making sure it is the best it can possibly be.

Andrew Morgan is the chief executive of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust