Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust

and recommendations for improvement.
Ward staff have stated that they value this
approach and that it helps them prepare for
unannounced CQC visits.
Observations of Care provide important
qualitative information that can be used
as part of the Trust’s overall assessment of
nursing quality; and they are an essential
component of the Nursing Quality and
Accreditation Framework (NQAF) that the
Trust began to develop in February 2013.
The NQAF will be based on our aim of
ensuring that patients on our wards are
always safe, comfortable, informed, and
involved. The NQAF sets out a number of
indicators and other quality factors that
will be used to measure and demonstrate
sustained improvements in quality. It also
describes the assessment process and the
potential rewards for achieving accreditation.
The framework will be shared more widely
and approved by senior nurses in the Trust
prior to its launch later in the first quarter
of 2013/14. Our ambition will be for all our
wards to achieve accreditation.
Dementia
In line with the National Dementia Strategy,
improving care for patients with dementia is
listed as a key priority in the Trust’s Business
Plan for 2013/14. We want to ensure that
older people have timely access to services
that are easy to navigate and fit for purpose.
We are driving improvements in both the
organisation and delivery of services for
patients and carers. These include providing
dementia training to all staff to increase their
knowledge of the condition, ensuring that
care is skilled, compassionate and respectful.
We are increasing access to dementia
screening for patients over 75 years, with
forward referral for further assessment as
indicated. We are developing individualised
care and treatment plans utilising recognised
tools such as the Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘This Is
Me’ to ensure patient and carer involvement.
We are a signatory to the Dementia Action
Alliance’s Declaration and are making
changes to our environment to progress our
aspiration of being dementia-friendly.
We will measure achievement of this
objective through a number of monitoring
tools. The Trust’s Dementia Strategy work
plan includes ‘SMART’ objectives to deliver
improvements in dementia care. We have
also published an action plan on the
Dementia Action Alliance’s website, which
we will review throughout the year. We will
capture patient and carer feedback via direct
questioning and review patient surveys,
compliments, complaints and incidents
to ensure service changes are resulting in
positive patient and carer experience.
Our staff
Staff consultation and engagement
The Trust has a range of mechanisms for
communicating information on matters
of concern to staff including regular
communication from the Chief Executive,
and the Core Brief – an electronic monthly
update. The magazine for staff and public
members of the Foundation Trust, ‘The
Pulse’, is distributed throughout the Trust’s
hospitals.
In 2012/13 a weekly General Information
bulletin was introduced to communicate
other information such as upcoming events
or policy changes as a response to requests
for more managed mechanisms around this
type of information.
Hospital management and Staff in
Partnership representatives meet regularly
at the Joint Negotiating and Consultative
Committee to share information and
discuss a broad range of subjects that may
affect staff. Seven members of the Council
of Governors are elected by staff; and a
further Governor is appointed by the Joint
Negotiating & Consultative Committee in
recognition of the importance of partnership
working between the unions and Trust
management.
26 Directors’ report