Louise McKenzie
Director of Workforce Transformation

I’m taking over the Weekly Message today and as it is Organ Donation Week I thought it would be a good opportunity to speak about this, as it is something I have personally experienced and strongly support.

Organ Donation Week aims to raise awareness and encourage conversations around personal donation choices. It’s not the easiest thing to talk about, but it’s vital that we do. I have experienced first-hand just how life changing organ donation can be; to give this some context I’d like to share my experience.

When I was in my early 30’s, a long term kidney condition led to me experiencing renal failure, which was extremely debilitating. I struggled with simple everyday tasks as my body wasn’t functioning properly and I was having dialysis in the evening and again through the night, every night. I had just started a new job and felt that it was already dictating so much of my life, I didn’t want it to affect my career too, sometimes I would have to do the dialysis exchange from my office at work - not recommended!

Suzanne Rankin
Chief Executive

In this week’s message I wanted to share some of the great work that has been undertaken by the Therapies team to change and improve the way we provide outpatient physiotherapy sessions, including gym-based classes and hydrotherapy services. The approach the team have taken demonstrating great agility, flexibility and a willingness to grasp a change opportunity and mobilise at pace is a great example for us all!

As you may have read on our Physiotherapy pages, last month we began relocating these services from St Peter’s to the River Bourne Club in Chertsey, where the team have access to modern, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. This move supports our ambition to become an anchor organisation, enabling us to provide this care in the centre of the community. It also aligns with our strategy, and vision to provide an outstanding experience and best possible outcome for patients and the team.

Suzanne Rankin
Chief Executive

This week I’d like to talk about the changes to car parking we have coming up at St Peter’s and the new Enabling Remote Working guide.

You’ll know from my previous messages that we are about to embark on a very exciting Trust-wide transformation programme. Over the next two to three years we will radically improve facilities and services across the hospitals for the benefit of patients and the team.

Whilst it may sound like a strange starting point, improving the car parking at St Peter’s is the first piece of the jigsaw. It will enable us to fully move off the West Site (the land we sold to CALA Homes, some of which we are currently leasing back to use for parking) and progress the rest of our plans. These include widespread estates improvements, including a new urgent care building, Team ASPH Wellbeing Centres and improved retail and catering outlets.

Suzanne Rankin
Chief Executive

When thinking about what to write this week, I realised I have had a number of firsts over the past few days. And I will not be the only one.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the FY1 doctors joining Team ASPH in their first job as a qualified doctor. They did a first together, which hopefully meant they were able to support each other. More often we do a first on our own, but sometimes they are shared.

I had two firsts this week. On Saturday, together with colleagues from ASPH and Surrey Heartlands, I attended my first Pride event when I went to Pride in the Park in Woking. It was fantastic event full of energy and enthusiasm, and really well organised by Ishbel Davis and Amraze Khan who did a great job of flying the NHS flag and demonstrating that the NHS, ASPH and Surrey Heartlands support equality, diversity and inclusion for all.