Our declaration in response to the Francis recommendations 2013
The Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Board, Governors and staff accept all the Francis recommendations in principle, and commit to implementing all those which are relevant to a hospital environment. The Trust is committed to delivering care and treatment in accordance with the principles set out in the revised NHS Constitution and to using the NHS Values, which are embodied in our own organisational values; Patients First, Personal Responsibility, Passion for Excellence and Pride in our Team as the foundation for all that we do.
We will continue to build an organisational culture founded on honesty, openness and continuous improvement, which recognises and reports errors and poor care and enables a swift and effective response. Our commitment to a culture free from the fear of retribution when issues or concerns are raised is unequivocal as is our determination to place the interests and needs of our patients at the heart of our organisation.
Since the first Francis report was published the Trust has been taking action to deliver on the recommendations and learning through a number of different work-streams and initiatives.
A selection of this work is listed below:
Improving quality and safety:
- Improving patient experience through implementation of the Friends and Family Test and improved management and response to complaints, in particular to ensure learning is captured and embedded in practice
- Appointment of a Chief of Patient Safety to lead on the development of a safety conscious culture where safety sits firmly at the top of our agenda
- Developing and implementing the Trust’s Nursing and Midwifery Strategy “Together we Care”
- Accreditation of the Best Care Programme – a ward based programme which aims to ensure patients receive the very best care; each ward is measured and assessed on a number of key quality and safety indicators with clear improvement plans in place where required
- Our ‘24 Hour Hospital Watch’ – involving small teams of staff, including participation from external stakeholders (e.g. Healthwatch), who undertake an impartial ‘watch’ of our hospitals over a 24 hour period including thorough patient involvement in safety and quality issues
- The introduction of Schwartz Rounds – providing an opportunity for staff to discuss the emotional impact of managing particularly difficult cases in a safe and confidential environment
Developing a clinically led organisation:
- Greater engagement with our clinicians so we can develop a truly clinically led organisation
- Development of a number of leadership programmes to support both clinical and non-clinical leaders
- Empowering teams through our dedicated programme ‘Team ASPH’, building a coaching and mentoring approach to help teams improve
Creating the right culture:
- Commitment to the Nursing Times’ Speak out Safely Campaign to ensure our staff know they can raise concerns safely
- A cultural programme to develop a stronger sense of citizenship amongst staff through initiatives focused on health, wellbeing and resilience (part of our ‘Employee Promise’ strategy)
- Developing a set of values based behaviours that staff can identify with
- A greater focus on staff engagement and discussion right across the organisation – using the “Wall” (an open digital discussion board), Sounding Boards (small groups of staff from a variety of disciplines and levels), wider Listening Events and encouraging and widening our interaction via social media
- Developing a structured programme of events to celebrate and reward our staff
Ensuring safer staffing:
- Trust Board agreement and implementation of a Safe Staffing Framework – a commitment to agreeing and ensuring the right number of staff for individual clinical areas and openly publishing the numbers on duty on any given day
- Focused work to develop a career and competency framework for Health Care Assistants
Declaration on Single Sex Accommodation
Ashford and St. Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust is pleased to confirm that we are compliant with the Government’s requirement to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except when it is in the patient’s overall best interest, or reflects their personal choice.
We have the necessary facilities, resources and culture to ensure that patients who are admitted to our hospitals will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and same-sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area.
Sharing with members of the opposite sex will only happen when clinically necessary (for example where patients need specialist equipment such as in the Intensive Care Unit), or when patients actively choose to share (for instance within our Children’s and Young People’s ward areas).
If our care should fall short of the required standard, we will report it. We will also set up an audit mechanism to make sure that we do not misclassify any of our reports. We will publish the results of that audit on the Trust website.
- Download the EMSA Audit and Action Plan 2012/13
Our Commitment to Safeguarding Children
Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Trust Board are fully committed to providing the highest standards of child protection and have undertaken a review in light of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) review.
Our Commitment to Accountability : Expenditure over £25,000
The Prime Minister wrote to Secretaries of State on 31st May 2010 inviting them to support his drive to improve the transparency of how public funds are used. The data (via the link below) represents the Trust's support of the specific commitment to publish details of expenditure over £25,000.
Spend is to be published monthly, by working day 15 after each month end .. read more.
Statement of Compliance on Infection Control
This is a Trust Board of Directors Agreement outlining its collective responsibility for minimising the risks of infection to its patients and staff.
The Trust Board is committed to the Health Social Care Act 2008, the Code of Practice for health and adult social care on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance. This outlines the accountability of the Board in reducing healthcare associated infections and the importance of hospital cleanliness. ... read more.
MRSA Screening Statement
In line with Department of Health guidelines on MRSA screening, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust are compliant with the requirement, which from December 31st 2010 also includes screening all adult patients (other than maternity) admitted to the Trust as an emergency.
Andrew Liles
Chief Executive
7th December 2010
St Peter’s Hospital Campus 20–Year Plan
Long term plans have been submitted to the planning authority to redevelop parts of the St Peter’s Hospital campus in Chertsey over the next 20 years to improve the infrastructure for local healthcare services ... find out more.
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