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Hello all, 

This month, we launched our new Acute Frailty Service and Frailty Same Day Emergency Care. We also announced our new Chair and launched our new Nursing and midwifery strategy. As expected, we also began to see the seasonal rise of respiratory viral illnesses such as COVID-19 and Flu across our site. 

Our services

Acute Frailty Model 

Last month I talked about how we are expanding and formalising the Acute Frailty Service and opening a Frailty Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit to reduce avoidable overnight admissions and overall length of stay, alleviate pressure on inpatient services, and improve our quality of care for our most frail patients. I am pleased to say that after some quick work by a number of our teams, this new service launched on 15 October and has already seen 43 Emergency Department patients – 35 of which were discharged the same day. Needless to say, it’s already helping us to reduce admissions, which is a great step as we head into winter, but the most important result is of course preventing unnecessary hospital stays for our elderly and frail patients. Early patient feedback has praised the new service, with one patient telling us that she felt ‘amazingly well looked after’ and another saying his experience was ‘very good and incredibly thorough’. As with any big changes there will be some teething problems to work through, but our patients are already seeing the difference – which is brilliant news. 

Seasonal rise of respiratory viral illnesses 

Over the last few weeks, we have seen the seasonal rise of respiratory viral illnesses such as COVID-19 and Flu across our site. As well as reminding our teams of the latest Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidelines and the importance of being extra vigilant in clinical areas when in close contact with patients with a possible respiratory viral infection, we also continued to promote our staff flu vaccine and shared more on our plans for COVID-19 booster vaccinations for frontline staff in line with national guidance. 

Change NHS 

In October the Government announced a new ‘Change NHS’ initiative to help shape its 10-year plan for the NHS, which is due to be published next year. While it’s too early to say what any of this will mean for the Trust and the NHS as a whole, this is a vital opportunity for our workforce to feedback on the unprecedented challenges we are facing and our ideas for the future. As I said in the foreword of our latest Annual Report, the financial pressures facing the NHS alone show that we must work differently going forward, consider how we can deliver more for less, and respond to the changing landscape around us in how people can and want to receive care. It’s our chance to innovate, adapt and design an NHS fit for the future. In line with our partners, we will therefore be encouraging our staff, patients and local community to get involved if they can. 

Our partners

Sussex Provider Collaborative

In October I attended an exciting meeting with the Sussex Trust Provider Collaborative. There is a recognition across all of our Sussex system partners that we need to move at pace to deliver the improvements required for patients in Sussex. These extend beyond individual organisations or delivery areas. As a result, the Sussex TPC have agreed that a major service review needs to be conducted for all NHS services across Sussex. As part of this, the Collaborative will be working with an independent organisation with national experience in this area of work.

Digital collaboration 

Digital teams from across Surrey Heartlands, including ours, have also been working closely together in recent months on improving patient experience and supporting clinicians to deliver better outcomes. Through three main priorities including working together on training and digital infrastructure, the project will help the Trusts across build on work already underway, share skills and resources, and deliver better digital solutions across Surrey Heartlands that will save time for clinicians and patients. 

Internally our digital teams continue to support teams across the Trust with recent key achievements including:

  • Working with the surgical division to implement a new Endoscopy reporting platform that went live in October.   
  • A nomination for an innovation award at the annual Imprivata healthcare conference for the work undertaken to capture photos as part of the recent Purpose T pressure damage digital launch.
  • Working with nursing teams to improve the process of recording of patient vital signs, this has reduced waste and increased the time nurses have for other care.
  • Supporting the medical division with enhancing board rounds and optimising the digital tools within Cerner Millenium.
  • Keeping the Trust safe from cyber security incidents also continues to be a huge focus for teams, with the Trust being benchmarked in the top three NHS Trusts nationally for its work. 

Trust news 

New Chair 

We recently announced that Dr Anita Donley, will be taking over the role of Chair of our Board when our current Chair, Richard Shaw, retires after more than 12 years at SASH. Anita, who brings with her several decades of clinical, quality and patient safety, and medical education experience, will start with us on 1 December. She is an experienced Chair at national level with over 20 years of experience in national healthcare strategy and policy - including government departments, NHS England and the World Health Organisation.

The next few years will be crucial ones for our Trust, and I am confident that Anita’s experience both managerial and clinical, will stand us in good stead for the strategic and system-wide challenges ahead. Her longstanding motivation to make improvements and provide sustainable high quality health services go hand in hand with our own mission as a Trust, and I look forward to welcoming her and working with her in the months to come. 

Nursing and Midwifery Strategy 

In October, our Chief Nurse launched our new Nursing and Midwifery Strategy, which sets out a proactive and direct response to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead over the next three years. It aims to continue to strengthen and support our workforce, enhance professional development, and ensure our practices are not only evidence-based but keep patients at heart. 

SASH Star Awards 

A few weeks ago we launched the nominations for our 2025 SASH Star Awards, which will be held in March 2025. Every year we award those who have gone above or beyond in their contribution to our Trust. To nominate an individual or a team who you feel deserve particular recognition for the difference they have made at SASH over the last year, please visit our website.

Best wishes,

Angela Stevenson 

Chief Executive