Annual Report and Accounts - The Great Western Hospital

1 CHAIR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT
During the course of the year there have been a number of changes within the Trust which have
altered the shape of the organisation and the way care is provided. The most significant of these
was the merger with Wiltshire Community Health Services (WCHS) in June 2011. Our successful
bid was the culmination of a substantial amount of work which has given us the opportunity to think
radically about how we can combine the acute and community resources in the best interests of
patients.
The first six months following the merger were spent getting to know the services, the staff and the
stakeholders in the local area. Having done so, the Trust is now in a position to begin delivering
the benefits of the merger including more joined up care for patients. One project that has begun in
this area is the work to improve patient flow across the Trust seven days a week. This work
involves acute staff based at the Great Western Hospital (GWH), community staff, social services
and GPs and is designed to remove the blockages that exist and which can get in the way of giving
patients the right care, in the right place and getting them back home swiftly. In the year ahead we
hope to see this project begin to deliver real changes to practices and processes, which in turn will
make a real difference to patients.
During the course of the year former Chief Executive, Lyn Hill-Tout left the Trust to take up another
post in the NHS. We would like to put on record the thanks of this Trust for the work undertaken by
Lyn, first as Operations Director and then as Chief Executive, in providing over 13 years of
dedicated service. She oversaw the move from the Princess Margaret Hospital to the new Great
Western Hospital and the licensing of ourselves as a foundation trust. However, above all Lyn
demonstrated a total commitment to high standards of patient care which she has taken forward in
her new role as Chief Executive of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Work to find a high calibre replacement began prior to Lyn's departure and Nerissa Vaughan joined
the Trust in October from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation Trust in King's Lynn. Work has
since begun on the development of a new Trust strategy to reflect the new reality of an integrated
healthcare organisation operating in a financially difficult and political environment.
The Trust is pleased to report very good performance across the majority of the key indicators we
are measured against. A significant amount of work takes place in the Trust, on the front line and
behind the scenes, to deliver the best care possible for our patients and our performance against
the 200 indicators we are measured against provides reassurance to those patients and service
users about the standards we strive to achieve. Our Trust was the only Trust in the South West to
score a green rating for all our comparable targets.
Our work on infection control over recent years has meant we have had consistently low rates of
MRSA and Clostridium difficile with just two cases of MRSA across the entire Trust and just 19
cases of C.diff - 50 fewer cases than the threshold we are measured against. The Trust was cited
as one of the best performing Trusts in the country on our performance to tackle C.diff which is
thanks to the combined efforts of all staff in adhering to the strict infection control practices we have
in place.
At the GWH we have changed the way we care for ambulatory (walk in) patients so they are seen,
treated and discharged without the need for hospital admission. At a time of rising attendances to
the Emergency Department, this change has helped us reduce the number of admissions. This is
particularly crucial during the busy winter months. Due to the success of this initial pilot, the new
model for Ambulatory Care, which also saw an increase in the number of beds on the Linnet Acute
Medical Unit, will become a permanent feature and we will be looking at ways to expand the service
across the whole week.
Page 6 of 211