It has been an exceptionally busy time at ASPH, with the extra pressures experienced during last winter continuing well into spring and summer.
Team ASPH have really pulled together to support each other and ensure that we strive to provide patients with the best possible care and treatment - a big thank you to you all. To support teams in coping with this sustained increase in demand, we are renewing our commitment to the Making Every Day Count programme. We want each day a patient spends with us to add real value to their care and recovery, helping them get closer to the place they call home. To support this we will shortly be changing the configuration of some assessment areas and wards. This will help ensure we have the right number of speciality beds in the right place and improve the flow of patients. Keep an eye out in the next issue of Aspire for more information on this.
Winter, and indeed spring are particularly busy times for us at ASPH and this year is no exception.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the fantastic team ASPH for your hard work and dedication in seeking to provide patients with the best possible care in what remains an extremely busy and pressurised time.
Recognition can be a very powerful way of demonstrating the value colleagues bring and to gather us together around a shared vision or goal.
The Staff Achievement Awards are always the highlight of the ASPH calendar and a superb occasion to take some time out and appreciate everything colleagues do day-in day-out, for patients, their teams and each other. We hosted an afternoon tea for about 300 colleagues and took the opportunity to celebrate with the Long Service Award winners for their amazing commitment and service to the Trust.
Birthdays, awards, new services and new names for existing services. All these give us a good collective reason to cheer and shout about our ever increasing list of achievements.
We recently shared in one of the biggest birthday parties celebrating with other NHS colleagues across the country the 70th year of the existence of the NHS. Nothing like a good cup of tea with a sumptuous piece of cake to share at our amazing events.
Welcome to our new look Aspire magazine – our first edition for spring. After a long and chilly winter it’s nice to move into brighter and warmer days.
Over the colder months we’ve had some exceptionally busy days in A&E and across our hospitals, which creates a challenge in managing our bed capacity. Coping with this extra demand whilst continuing to provide high quality care to our patients has required a supreme effort; thank you to every member of Team ASPH and all of our healthcare partners for your invaluable contribution.
You will notice that it’s been a time of change for us. We recently said ‘goodbye’ to our previous Chairman, Aileen McLeish, after many years of dedicated service.
Of course this is always a busy time of year in our hospitals as we begin to think ahead and put plans in place for winter. The colder months always bring increased pressures and it’s important that we work with our local health partners to prepare for this.
We continue to be busy across our hospitals and over the last few months have a number of new developments and achievements to update you on.
In March we were delighted to be named a CHKS Top 40 Hospital again, and to be shortlisted for their Quality of Care award for the third year running (having won it in 2015) - quite an achievement. They also shortlisted us for a new healthcare efficiency award which underlines our success in combining top quality care with good financial management, also reflected in our year-end position where we achieved a total surplus of £8.7m.
Lady Forsyth-Johnson opens our new ICU area
A fond farewell from Aileen McLeish
Andy Field Appointed as New Chairman
Ashford and St. Peter’s win gold for healthy eating options
New GP service to help A&E patients at St. Peter’s
The Surrey Heartlands Partnership
Help us improve urgent care services
Stroke Services in West Surrey
Our stars shine at our annual Staff Awards
Gardening volunteers transform outside areas at St. Peter ’s Hospital
Team ASPH wins big
Ophthalmology in Focus
New Governors
Spotlight on our Integrated Musculoskeletal Service
Virtual Outpatient Appointments
Stunning refurb inspired by children’s author
£100,000 Neonatal Care Donation
Celebrations at St. Peter ’s Peter’s Hospital Baby Unit
Once again the colder weather and surge in demand for our services resulted in a very challenging spell for us over the winter months and to a large extent continues into the Spring.
Yet colleagues across our hospitals continue to rise to the challenge, working hard to ensure patients receive the high quality care they need. Positive collaboration between all partners across North West Surrey has made a significant contribution to the smooth running of our hospitals and the whole local health economy and as a Trust we continue to work hard to develop these relationships further.
Celebrating our new Multi-Faith Centre
All change at St. Peter’s Hospital
£2 million investment to improve facilities
Cherry Ward Lunch Club
New developments for our busy Endoscopy Unit
Spotlight on our Colorectal Cancer team
Improving stroke services in West Surrey
Developing the Surrey Heartlands STP
Members’ Update
Recruitment of new Trust Chair
Meet your Staff Governors
Learning whilst earning
A word from our two new Directors
Tackling Sepsis
Health and wellbeing for oncology patients
A banner day for South Korean nurse trainees
Peddling for pounds to support our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
As we move through autumn, the temperature drops and the nights draw in, we are starting to think ahead to winter.
We’ve spoken a lot recently about the pressures we are facing in emergency care, and as the ‘front door’ of St. Peter’s Hospital, much of this pressure is felt in A&E. Providing safe, good care for our patients is our priority and we’ve made some positive changes in the department recently, improving our four hour A&E target performance. As winter approaches, however, we know there will be increased demand on our services and it’s really important we do everything we can now to plan ahead. We have just begun a programme of reconfiguration in our A&E department, to expand and better organise the different areas. The first step is the expansion of our Clinical Decisions Unit by six bed spaces.
A lot has been going on since our last edition and as a hospital we continue to be as busy as ever.
Looking at the wider picture, following the announcement that our merger plans with the Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) are currently on hold, NHS Improvement has now undertaken an investigation at RSCH looking at both finances and waiting times performance. We have agreed to wait to see the progress RSCH are making in their recovery before we making our final decisions.
Celebrating Staff Excellence
Capsule Endoscopy: A truly inner-vative treatment
Stroke Services: Supporting Best Outcomes for Patients
Pride in Nursing and Midwifery Day
Spotlight on ... Therapies
An innovative approach to recovery
Dementia Services
"SimMom" helps our maternity team
Huge refurbishment project gets under way at St Peter’s
As always we had a busy start to the year, with continued pressure on our hospitals and equally across the local healthcare system.
We remain proud of the way colleagues across the Trust have responded to some very challenging days, including our busiest ever day in A&E recently which reached 350 attendances.
We continue to work collaboratively with partners across the local system; our commissioners, NW Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Adult Social Care, Virgincare, GP colleagues and others, and there is no doubt we have improved our resilience by working as a ‘system’ rather than as individual organisations.
Edna Adan Ismail’s inspirational visit to Maternity
