This is a special edition of H1, which rather than share the general news from our hospitals and community services, has a focus on our recent strategic achievements and plans for the future. I hope you enjoy this special edition, and I would welcome any feedback or questions - simply email me at daniel.elkeles@nhs.net.
This is a momentous time for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust - we recently received a 'Good' rating from the independent health and social care regulator the Care Quality Commission (the best rating we have ever received) and the Government has just announced a record £500 million funding allocation to refurbish both Epsom and St Helier hospitals and build a brand new specialised emergency care hospital at Epsom, St Helier or Sutton.
The half a billion p
ound investment will transform patient care for the 500,000 people who use our hospital services, greatly improve the experience of our 6,000 committed staff and secure a long term and sustainable future for hospital services in our area. It will allow us to refurbish buildings (some of which are older than the NHS itself and are not fit for modern healthcare), and ensure that both Epsom and St Helier are fit for the future. It will also enable a new state-of-the-art hospital facility to be built to care for patients who
are very sick or who are at risk of becoming very ill
and support the medical workforce to improve staffing levels and patient care. It will also allow the hospitals to finally tackle the annual £37 million underlying deficit.
As you will be aware, the next step will be a public consultation so members of the public can have their say about the proposals - no decisions have been made yet, so it is vital that local people give their feedback.
I am incredibly proud of our organisation and the improvements we have made recently, and I look forward to the profound and lasting impact £500 million will have on both Epsom and St Helier hospitals and on local people.
We want the communities we serve to be cared for in buildings fit for modern healthcare. In their hour of need, patients deserve teams of senior, committed staff to care for them around the clock. To give the best care possible, staff need to be able to work in buildings that reflect the importance and quality of the job that they do. And, while the proposals are to bring together acute services for our sickest patients on to one of our three sites (making care safer for people who are very sick or at risk of becoming very ill), more than 85% of patients will see no change to where they receive their care now and acute services will remain in Surrey Downs, Sutton and Merton.
Our doctors and nurses are clear that bringing together
services for people who are very sick or at risk of becoming very ill will mean better care, better outcomes, with senior doctors and nurses on site 24-hours-a-day, every day of the week. For those who need us for urgent care (such as a broken bone), they will still be able to rely on the services of Epsom and St Helier hospitals, and be cared for in improved and refurbished buildings.
We know that we are Good at what we do - but without this serious investment, we will never be able to reach the next step in the Care Quality Commission's ratings, and that's Outstanding.
It hasn't always been plain sailing for the Trust.
Some key services do not meet the agreed national and regional clinical standards, including staffing requirements in the emergency departments and acute medicine services.
The long-standing issues have caused significant challenges for us, and debates and reviews into the long term future of hospital services have rumbled on for two decades.
