Chief executive's report - East and North Herts NHS Trust

EAST AND NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE NHS TRUSTCHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT28 th September 2011Chief Executive’s OverviewOn 4 th August the Secretary of State the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP visited the ListerHospital and confirmed that the Department of Health and HM Treasury had given theirapproval for the Trust’s Outline Business Case for Phase 4 of the Our ChangingHospitals Programme. This phase enables the Trust to complete the centralisation ofacute services at the Lister Hospital. Further information relating to the progress of thefull business cases for Phase 4 is provided in the Our Changing Hospitals paper.Whilst the Phase 4 announcement emphasises the actions needed to complete theacute reconfiguration process it is important to note that, following the opening of theSurgicentre this week, the Trust is now implementing major service change on a scalenot previously seen in East and North Hertfordshire. A full briefing upon these changesis attached at Item 8.The Trust has submitted its application to become a Foundation Trust to NHS East ofEngland. The Trust application will be considered by the Provider Development Boardat the SHA this week. It is anticipated that the application will go before the Departmentof Health in October 2011.The Trust has received the Care Quality Commission’s report on its review ofcompliance at Hertford County Hospital (HCH). The review was initiated by CQC inDecember 2010 as part of their scheduled activity for ongoing monitoring of compliancewith the Essential Standards of Quality and Safety. An unannounced inspection at HCHon the 7 th July 2011 formed the final part of the review. The report is very positive andconfirms that HCH is fully compliant with all 16 Essential Standards of Quality andSafety. Congratulations to Mary Tattan, Deputy Nursing Services Manager, DeborahWhittaker, Acting General Manager for Medicine, Julia Winter, Sister (OPD) and theirteams. The full report has been discussed by the Risk and Quality Committee and isavailable to the public on the Trust’s website.I am delighted to report that Angela Thompson commenced work with the Trust as itsnew Director of Nursing and Patient Experience on 30 th August. I am sure that allDirectors will join me in welcoming Angela to the Board.Some 200 people, including nearly 150 public foundation trust members, attended theTrust's annual general meeting, which was held in Hatfield's Onslow St Audrey'sSchool on the evening of Thursday, 15 th September 2011. Despite problems with theschool's sound system, the meeting proved a great success with feedback on the clinicalpresentations in particular being positive.The event was also a first for the Trust, which saw the meeting being tweeted live acrossthe internet. Coverage online was also very supportive and proved to be a worthwhileinitiative, allowing those who could not attend to still take part in the meeting as itunfolded.

On Monday, 19 th September 2011 Stevenage MP, Stephen McPartland, visited theLister hospital, where he was shown the Trust's urological surgery robot. Mr McPartlandlearnt how the robot is used to improve the outcome for patients undergoing surgery forprostate cancer amongst other urological disorders.A second phase of ARC meetings has been held for the Trust’s line managers across allof the Trust’s sites with approximately 500 line managers attending. This secondbriefing has focussed upon a further two of the Trust’s values, namely:We value everybodyWe are open and honestThose present heard patient testimony and participated in development sessionsdesigned to emphasise these values. The programme plan summarising theperformance of core ARC projects continues to be monitored by the ARC SteeringGroup and Risk and Quality Committee.One of the core ARC projects relates to staff recognition schemes. I am pleased toreport that on Thursday, 3 rd November 2011 the Trust will hold its new annual awards,replacing previous general staff, nursing and volunteer award schemes. CalledCelebration of Excellence, nominations for a wide range of award categories openedon 30 th August 2011.By the time they closed on 16 th September, a very large number of nominations hadbeen received - particularly for the category where members of the public couldnominate a staff member or team. In part this is thanks to the Trust's local media, whohelped the Trust promote this new category via articles in local newspapers.Short listing is now underway and the awards event itself on 3 rd November and promisesto be an important occasion acknowledging the excellence of the Trust’s staff.I would like to express my thanks to Carol Mumford, Matron in Renal Services and hercolleagues who have led this project.I would like to draw the Board's attention to two particular honours that have beenafforded to one of the Trust's senior consultant urologists, Professor Tom McNicholas.Campbell's Urology has been described as the bible for urologists and its latestedition, Professor McNicholas has written a chapter on benign prostatic disease andmedical therapy. Given its influence on urology practice worldwide and the fact thatmost contributors work in either academic and/or teaching hospital settings, ProfessorMcNicholas' invitation to write a chapter is a tremendous reflection of the high standingin which he and his colleagues in the Trust's urology service are held internationally.Professor McNicholas has also been asked to public a systematic review of male urinarydisease, with particular reference to the prostate, on the hugely influential online ClinicalEvidence service on the BMJ's website. This service gets in excess of 130,000 hitsevery day and is one of the most regularly accessed online services used by clinicians

across the NHS, as well as in health services across the world.Finally, I would like to congratulate the Trust’s Renal Team for its successful applicationto NHS Kidney Care – Timely Listing for Kidney Transplantation. The project fundingwas due to be related in September 2011 subject to completion of the relevant NHSKidney Care project assurance documentation and will run until March 2012.Nick Carver28 th September 2011