Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Quality Account 2016-2017

Part One
A statement on quality from our Chief Executive
At Northampton General Hospital we are committed to providing the very best possible care for
each of our patients. This is underpinned by a focus on our key values, all of which have a critical
role in providing high quality care. As we build a culture where patient safety stands out as our
overarching concern and where every member of staff understands their role in improving this, we
have also made a commitment to continual quality improvement in an atmosphere of respect and
support.
Our Quality Account gives an overview of the Trust’s performance in providing high quality care for
our patients and their families and also sets out our priorities for improvement.
The experience that our patients and visitors have however goes well beyond the things we can
measure in terms of outcomes of treatment. We are proud of the motivation our staff show for the
delivery of the care and compassion they would like a member of their own family to receive.
Whilst the pressures on the NHS are obvious and the demand for our services continues to grow,
our staff have continued to provide the best care they can and have increasingly worked towards a
‘team NGH’ approach to support ambitious programmes of work which will support better care for
our patients and a better working environment for staff.
The views of our staff, patients and their carers have been brought together in our Quality
Improvement Strategy which forms the basis of our quality priorities over each of the next three
years. On the understanding that better quality care is better value for patients and the taxpayer,
we have committed to support a culture where quality improvement drives programmes of change
to ensure the care we provide is better for patients, better for staff and are resources are used
most efficiently.
We have made significant progress against the priorities we set ourselves for 2016/17 which was
year one of our Quality Improvement Strategy. For example:
We have improved the safety of our patients through a reduction in falls which result in
harm and the number of patients who develop a pressure ulcer whilst we are caring for
them.
Infection prevention is an important issue for us and we have seen a further reduction in the
number of patients who develop and infection as a result of the care they receive at NGH.
We have improved the timeliness of treatment for those patients who have developed a
serious infection (sepsis) where any delay can adversely affect the outcome.
We have continued to invest in our staff though programmes of leadership and
development focussed on improving quality. This has contributed to the positive work that
we have done on the safety culture in key areas of the Trust.
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