Annual Members' Meeting 2020

Strategic Objective 5: Collaborate - Sustain and Thrive

Working with our partners in health and care to ensure provision of high quality, sustainable NHS services to the communities we serve.

Our key achievements over the last year are:

First ASPH Community Day

We welcomed over 300 people to our first Community Day at St. Peter’s Hospital on Saturday 6th July. The day was an outstanding success, with visitors of all ages attending and a fantastic buzz created around the Trust. The feedback from all who attended was brilliant with comments such as ‘We’re so lucky to have Ashford and St. Peter’s in our community – brilliant’ and ‘Amazing. Well done ASPH!’ posted on the visitor comments board.

Interactive stands and activities were set up throughout the hospital for teams to showcase their departments and specialties, including a ‘behind the scenes’ operating theatre experience, which proved very popular with visitors. The hospital was also supported by various partners including Radio Wey, Surrey Police, South East Coast Ambulance Service, St John’s Ambulance, Unison and The Army Reserve and Cadets. Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals Chairman Andy Field, Chief Executive Suzanne Rankin, and Col Ash Boreham signed the Armed Forces Covenant, formally marking the Trust’s commitment to the serving members of the armed forces as well as veterans and their families.

“The Community Day was absolutely fantastic and a huge success. It was lovely to see families come together to find out more about everything the Trust has to offer. Most people come to hospital when they are unwell or they are visiting someone, so the Community Day provided a rare opportunity to come and see the variety of things that we do and to demystify the whole hospital experience.”

Andy Field, Chairman

ASPH as an Anchor Organisation

Last spring we began to work with Well North Enterprises and Lord Andrew Mawson OBE to complete a piece of work to engage with colleagues, local people and key organisations (both public and private sector) to understand how the Trust can become a ‘public asset’ for the whole community. NHS Trusts such as ASPH have a major impact in their localities purely as a result of their size, and we are looking to use this Anchor Institution status in a positive way to support the health and wellbeing of our community.

The work will help us shape the vision for the investment in our buildings and facilities and also to have a clearer understanding of our future role as a positive ‘anchor organisation’ within the local area.

In July colleagues from ASPH and the North West Surrey Integrated Care Partnership visited the Bromley-by-Bow Centre – the brainchild of Lord Andrew Mawson who set out 35 years ago to build a place with truly supports individual and community health – recognising that health is primarily driven by social factors and not medical ones. We used this visit to reflect on the opportunities ahead at Ashford and St. Peter’s, especially around the redevelopment of our sites.

Well North has also helped us initiative several, exciting, community partnership projects. This includes a close relationship with Stanwell Events and a foodbank with collection points at both Ashford and St. Peter’s. We have also provided green space for Surrey County Council to provide training opportunities and work experience to unemployed young adults.