GMS celebrates Rainbow Day

Gloucestershire Managed Services (GMS) staff celebrated Rainbow Day yesterday (14 May) as part of Gloucestershire Hospitals Staff Advice and Support Hub’s first birthday.

Staff got into the spirit of the day by wearing brightly coloured clothing and accessories to brighten colleagues’ and patients’ days and to show hope and support for each other during these challenging times. In addition, the two main restaurants, Fosters and Blue Spa served an exciting array of rainbow-themed foods for its staff, patients and visitors. This included rainbow pizza, rainbow noodles and a selection of rainbow themed cakes and treats.

Shelly Alder, Catering Services Manager from GMS came up with the idea of Rainbow Day to make staff feel connected and to boost morale. She said: “In the past few months the rainbow has been an icon of hope and solidarity, and since COVID-19 staff from across GMS and the Trust have been working longer hours in difficult circumstances. I felt that a rainbow-themed day would help to recognise our staff and their hard work and to boost morale. I’m really pleased with the enthusiasm which staff have shown towards the Rainbow Day idea and think it’s a great way to recognise our fantastic Staff Advice and Support Hub too.”

Rainbow Day coincided with the first birthday of the Trust’s Staff Advice and Support Hub, known as the ‘2020 Hub’. The Hub which is open to GMS staff helps people in a number of ways including:

• Physical health and wellbeing: Access to a broad range of exercise and fitness classes, healthy eating, weight management, occupational health and physiotherapy referrals.
• Mental and emotional health and wellbeing: Access to a telephone counselling service (24 hours a day) offering up to six counsellor consultations/sessions. Where appropriate, access to the hospitals clinical psychology staff support team.
• Financial health and wellbeing: As well as support for financial management there is also access to information about NHS discounts and salary sacrifice programmes.