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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 22 August 2008 11:02 |
1. General progress
The turn-around of the Trust is being maintained. It is now meeting national targets for treatment within 18 weeks of referral by a GP, also the target for patients to receive treatment within 4 hours of arriving at A & E. Infections are low and reducing steadily. Additional work is increasing income and providing a small financial surplus. Cancelled operations are fewer. Delayed transfers have been reduced by opening an intermediate care ward at Hemel Hempstead. All this is a huge achievement.
2. Application for Foundation Trust status
The East of England SHA is now satisfied that the Trust can move towards being a foundation trust, possibly achieved in December 2009.
Public consultation on the Trust’s proposals will run from 23rd September until 16th December 2008. The Chief Executive, Jan Filochowski, has offered to come to a Community Voice meeting to explain the proposals to our members.
3. Watford Hospital
The Outline Business Case for the new hospital is now being prepared.
The last issue of the Health Service Journal, 14 August 2008, featured this £200m private finance initiative health campus, which is expected to take account of environmental issues – rainwater will be piped off the hospital roof to water the football pitch and there are hopes of cutting energy consumption by 27%.
4. Staffing issues.
Attention now focuses on recruitment, to reduce reliance on agency staff, which is expensive and less satisfactory than permanent staff.
From April to June the Trust recruited 90 new members of staff, compared with 27 for the same period last year. 14 additional midwives are due to start work soon.
The Trust is starting to replace junior doctors with experienced nurse practitioners at night. This improves quality of care, because issues arising at night generally require nurse intervention, and it also leads to financial savings.
Joan
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