Annual Members' Meeting 2020

Strategic Objective 3: Modern Healthcare

Delivering the most effective and efficient treatment and care through standardisation in the delivery and outcome of clinical services.

Our key achievements over the last year are:

Large scale site transformation

Over the last year a large number of transformation estates projects have taken place across the Trust, greatly improving the environment for both patients and the team. The completion of land sales at both sites was a milestone in the history of the Trust and paved the way for major healthcare improvement and to transform services and facilities.

Highlights from Ashford

In December 2019 we officially opened the new children’s nursery at Ashford Hospital. The nursery was relocated from the old estates yard and moved to a new, purposed built, facility in the heart of the main hospital building, providing a much improved environment for both children and staff.

We were also delighted to open a new Infusion Suite at Ashford to accommodate our growing chemotherapy and infusion treatment service. The new suite provides a much better facility with more comfortable and private space for patients receiving these treatments. Being able to provide treatment for patients closer to home to avoid long journeys is a positive development and part of our longer-term strategy

Highlights from St Peter's

Work began on the new multi-deck car park at St. Peter’s with the demolition of the old main outpatients’ car park in October 2019. The works are now well underway and we look forward to opening the new, much improved, parking facility later this year. The works have caused inevitable disruption to patients, visitors and colleagues and we would like to thank everyone for their patience and support.

Renovation work was completed on the pharmacy, which is much improved and includes a new ‘robot’ for dispensing medicines automatically.

Building works also begun to create new facilities for intensive care and urology. For intensive care a new waiting room and family room for relatives and visitors is being created. This will replace the current facilities along the main hospital corridor which are very small and provide little privacy. The new urology offices will enable the whole team – clinical and support colleagues – to come together in one place.

In March this year we opened the new Emergency Surgery Ambulatory Care Unit. This provides patients with certain conditions the opportunity to be booked into a ‘day case’ slot the following day and go home prior to their surgery. This is a better experience for the patient and also reduces demand on inpatient beds.

Works also took place to create a new main store and medical engineering facility at St. Peter’s, to replace those lost through the sale of the West Site. The new location within the main hospital building is much better, providing a single point of entry for deliveries.

The Postgraduate Centre restaurant and dining area was extended to provide adequate restaurant facilities for staff following the closure of the Aspects restaurant and prior to the building of a new commercial catering building located at the front of the hospital.

Encouraging use of public transport

To encourage greater use of public transport, particularly during the car parking works, we secured additional bus services on the 446 route which runs from Woking to Staines, via St. Peter’s and Chertsey. This has been very well received, particularly by colleagues who are able to access the service free of charge. The transport team also procured larger capacity buses and a wheelchair accessible vehicle to the inter-site Hospital Hopper service between Ashford and St. Peter’s. In conjunction with introducing extra passenger services at peak times, this enables more colleagues to use this popular service.

Transforming physiotherapy services

Over the course of the year the therapies team have undertaken some inspiring work to change and improve the way outpatients receive physiotherapy, including gym-based classes and hydrotherapy.

These services have been relocated to the River Bourne Club in Chertsey, where patients have access to modern, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. Doing so has enabled us to provide a much better services for patients, with improved exercise equipment and changing facilities – in a ‘de-medicalised’ environment that helps patients to build confidence in continuing their exercise post treatment.

Quote from a patient: ‘I’m writing to thank you for the physio sessions in the pool received for my CRPS. Not only did it have a beneficial effect on my condition but actually made a profound difference to my life. I joined a local health club (and felt confident to do so), lost a stone in weight and feel less daunted doing things on my own now.”