News from The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustIncorporating Hillingdon and Mount Vernon Hospitals

THe PulseIssue 157 Summer 2019

Inside:

Simulation learning

A&e Ambulance Handover

Frailty Team improve patient flow

The Pulse

of visits they make to hospital areas as well, giving staff the opportunity to talk in their own working environments.

We have a great feature on our simulation centre on page 10 – it’s an important part of training our staff; ensuring that they have the most up-to-date skills and are able to test their knowledge in a safe and controlled environment. It is vital to ensuring we can give patients the very best care.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who supported the Hillingdon Hospitals Charity for the Hillingdon 10k and Half Marathon, more than £10,000 was raised, which is a fantastic achievement. Thank you to all of our hard-working volunteers as well – if you would like to find out more about volunteering at our hospitals, please see the website detail under the charity update on page 4.

I hope you enjoy the magazine. With best wishes,

Sarah Tedford

One of the most consistent observations is that we have highly-dedicated and skilled staff working in very challenging circumstances. So I am delighted that we have been able to appoint a very experienced director of estates, Tahir Ahmed – you can read more about him on page 7. Having the right executive team is important as part of their role is to support our clinical staff, who deliver patient care every single day. You can meet the whole team on page 14.

One of the things I have been focusing on since I arrived at the Trust, is listening to and meeting with our staff. I have visited many different wards and departments and I am spending one day a week, along with my executive colleagues, at Mount Vernon. As a leadership team, we hold monthly open staff forums, when any member of staff can come along and talk with us. We also hold team briefing sessions for managers, at both hospitals, producing a take-away managers’ pack to help with team meetings and discussions. The executive team is increasing the number

What’s New

Spotlight on... Tahir Ahmed

Better care for patients

Simulation Centre

Frailty Team

Focus on... the Leadership Team

Governors’ Voice

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Contents

Summer 2019Issue 157

Produced by:The Communications Departmentthh-tr.communications@nhs.netPrint: Streamline Your Print

The Pulse magazine is for our patients, local people, staff and members of The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Copies can be picked up from the Trust and downloaded from our website.

www.thh.nhs.uk

Cover: Dr Natalie Murray in the Simulation Centre

Chief executive of The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

HeALTH

Hello and welcome to this summer edition of The Pulse magazine. I have been chief executive for six months now and have spent a lot of that time meeting our staff and understanding the issues that we face here at the Trust.

Welcome from Sarah Tedford

Best foot forward – your heart will thank you

Just Walk is the BHF’s sponsored walk pack, created to help get people out and about, walking and raising funds.

May is National Walking Month, and the BHF website has a stack of resources and ideas to help you get started. For example, canal walks, (in association with the Canal & River Trust) are something readers in this area can easily make use of with the Grand Union Canal nearby.

‘Just walk’ it sounds simple but the message concerning exercise, mobility and the associated health benefits sometimes gets lost in the business of our everyday lives.

Worried you won’t be able to find anyone to walk with?

Gary Glazerman lives in Harrow and joined a local walking group – one of about a dozen in the area – to lose weight and get fitter after retiring. “We encourage all ages and abilities,” he said. “Our oldest walker is about 85, our youngest is a three-month-old baby brought along in his mother’s arms. We always try to start or finish near a café so we can have a chinwag at the end.”

In the words of Lisa Young, BHF physical activity specialist: “By taking part in Just Walk, you can help us to support the seven million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK. You can walk wherever and whenever suits you, and it’s an easy way to fundraise for the BHF.

“Remember, every pound you raise will fund research that’s urgently needed to help us beat heart disease.”

What about getting the kids in on the act?

Monday 20 - Friday 24 May 2019 is Walk To School Week, with teachers, parents and children asked to put their best foot forward and walk to school each day, whilst raising money for life-saving research.

More to the point, walking is – in the words of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) – ‘fun, flexible and free’, and a great way to ensure regular exercise with just a little effort. Combine it with sponsorship and you’re on to a winner; raising money for your favourite charity while doing yourself good at the same time.

By taking part in Just Walk, you can help us to support the seven million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK... it’s an easy way to fundraise for the BHF

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NeWS

What’s New Here you’ll find the latest news about Hillingdon and Mount Vernon Hospitals as well as information about available services. 5

Fast FactsDigital services

5,000 …networked devices supported

across the organisation by more than 70 staff.

c.2,100 …service requests sent to the Service Desk each month.

£1.1m …invested in infrastructure

and systems last year including our wi-fi network, upgrading our software across our server estate and developing the Hillingdon

Care Record.

5 …key clinical systems

implemented last year to improve patient care including electronic

clinical handover of patients, e-vetting of referrals and

e-Observations for monitoring patients’ vital signs.

1st…to have GP records available

within an acute care setting via a mobile app.

Station volunteer, Jean Gillen explains: “We are hoping that in this, our 50th year, we will once again be able to broadcast to all areas of the hospital. A few years back, around the time that the Treatment Centre was built, we inexplicably lost the ability to broadcast to the far side of the hospital, including the cancer treatment areas. We think a cable was probably cut somewhere.

“I suppose it’s about 25-30 patients who are missing out, including people having chemotherapy, for whom we know the opportunity to listen to music is important.” Jean explains that

although listening via the internet is possible, not all patients are that ‘tech savvy’, and would prefer the traditional earphones-from-a -wall-socket method.

An engineer is looking into viable solutions, as well as the possibility of reaching the nearby hospice, which is currently being refurbished.

“We’re hopeful funds to pay for any work can be found if necessary,” said Jean.

To mark its 50th birthday, Hospital Radio Mount Vernon will hold a special get-together celebration for volunteers past and present.

Following a recent refurbishment, the centre has also now been awarded the prestigious Macmillan Quality in Information and Support Services (MQuISS) certificate – a quality standard that assesses how well a Macmillan centre meets the needs of people living with cancer, taking into account factors such as leadership, planning and money management.

Susan Grace, the Information and Support Manager at the

Trust cancer centre recognised for great care

Macmillan advisors in the recently refurbished centre

Hospital radio celebrates big anniversary with a birthday wishHospital Radio Mount Vernon is marking 50 golden years of broadcasting this year. And topping their birthday wish list is the desire to re-connect to parts of the hospital the station no longer reaches via the traditional closed-circuit system.

staff and volunteers at the Macmillan Cancer Information and support Centre at Hillingdon Hospital are celebrating after being recognised for the high-quality support they provide to local cancer patients.

Visit radiomountvernon.org.uk to find out more.

If you need information or just a chat, call 0808 808 0000 (seven days a week, 8am to 8pm) or visit www.macmillan.org.uk.

centre said: “We’re all so proud to have received an MQuISS certificate. It’s an incredible achievement, which has taken over a year of hard work to prepare for. All our volunteers are extremely committed to providing the best possible service, so this recognition means an awful lot to everyone. It also helps ensure we continue to be there for local people who’ve been impacted by a cancer diagnosis.”

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Be part of it!

The Charity is now looking forward to its next two events – the inaugural Uxbridge 5 Mile on Sunday 26 May and the Ickenham 5 Mile on Sunday 7 July.

The hospital charity is the main partner for both of these events and will be there fundraising on the day.

If you want to get your running shoes out and raise some sponsorship for a great cause, contact the charity on 01895 279789.

The team will also be at the Hayes Carnival on Saturday 6 July joining in and enjoying the fun atmosphere.

None of these events would be possible without our team of volunteers. We are working very hard to increase the number of volunteers within the Trust and its charity, and have recently launched our new volunteer programme, managed by Marcy Madzikanda.

If you would like to help out at these, or any other events, please

The Hillingdon 10k and Half Marathon took place earlier this year and was a great success. A big thank you to all those who took part, or came to support on the day.

To make a donation, or to find out more, visit: hillingdonhospitalscharity.org.

look at Voluntary Work under the Careers section of the Trust website: www.thh.nhs.uk/jobs/index.php.

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Spotlight on... Tahir Ahmed, here to improve our estate

We wanted to catch up with Tahir about his plans now that he has started at the Trust. Thanks for talking with us Tahir, let us start with your ideas for our hospitals.

Q What are the top priorities?A I am absolutely committed

to improving the quality of the hospital estate. To provide an environment that is not only fit for purpose but also feels safe and supports the wellbeing of our patients, while responding to the future needs of our most valued asset, our staff.

While we keep both our sites operational, we must also secure the investment that our long-term planning for Hillingdon calls for.

Tahir Ahmed is the Trust’s new executive Director of estates and Facilities. He is responsible for all the buildings on both the Hillingdon and Mount Vernon sites and much of what goes on inside them, from cleaning to catering.

Q What are the main challenges?A Clearly, maintaining

the existing buildings and infrastructure while ensuring services remain unaffected is a huge challenge.

Q What excites you about your new role?

A OK, let’s be honest, it comes with some long hours, stress and daily pressures – it’s the NHS! However, you get to work with a wide range of individuals who are equally passionate about their job and our common goal.

Q How would you like to keep patients, visitors and staff informed about changes that are coming?

A It's all about integration and involvement, influencing decision-making from top down and bottom up, so all of our stakeholders – basically the entire community we serve – must be included in this continuous dialogue.

Q What do you hope to achieve in the first six months of the job?

A The Trust, whilst facing plenty of estates-related challenges, also offers a unique opportunity for someone like me to add real value to clinical service delivery and patient care through estates development and transformation.

Not everything will be done immediately but through a collaborative plan I am confident that we can work together to make a real difference.

I am absolutely committed to improving the quality of the hospital estate. To provide an environment that is not only fit for purpose but also feels safe

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Come and join a team that CAReS at HillingdonThe NHs is making some exciting changes and there has never been a better time to join the friendly team at Hillingdon Hospitals. With a variety of careers and roles on offer, more and more people are choosing to make the move to Hillingdon.

The borough benefits from a range of good schools and colleges, affordable housing, a subsidised on-site nursery, over 200 green spaces covering 1,800 acres, great shopping and easy access to London, the M25 and Heathrow.

We offer a great preceptorship programme for new staff to build a positive foundation for a healthcare career. Furthermore, our CAReS values are at the heart of everything we do, in the

way everyone works together and in our patient care. This is also demonstrated by staff and patients recommending us because we are such a friendly place to work.

Our forward-thinking Integrated Care Partnership, together with our mental health, community, GP and voluntary sector colleagues, is creating the future of care for our communities, right now. And this is enhanced by our Academic Centre for Health Sciences, created in partnership with Brunel University London, which is right on our doorstep.

Being an open and approachable organisation is central to how we deliver care for our patients; there is a body of research that shows having an engaged workforce will improve care and outcomes for all of those who are treated and cared for at Hillingdon and Mount Vernon hospitals.

The results show us that we need to improve in a number of areas. Whilst there is good awareness of our communication methods, they are not effective in engaging with our people. So we are looking to make changes and address those

Listening to our staffThank you to all staff who completed the recent internal communications and engagement research. It was very important in helping us to better understand what is working and where improvements can be made.

that require a little more thought.We will be working closely

with staff to bring further improvements over the coming months, some of those will be to this magazine, and we are redesigning our weekly all staff bulletin to ensure it can be printed off and has key information highlighted.

We are also going to explore the re-launch of an ideas scheme to ensure every member of staff can contribute their thoughts and ideas on how we can improve patient care.

Will the heat be on again this summer?It hardly seems five minutes since the sweltering summer of 2018 – or has the winter made it a distant memory? Either way, there is always the possibility of long, hot summer days returning again this year. So it’s a good time to think about how best to prepare. Hot weather can creep up on us, and while the first day or so can

be lovely, a longer spell can lead to health issues for some people.

Dehydration and heat exhaustion or heat stroke are the main dangers. Taking in plenty of fluids – small sips, taken often – will help to keep you hydrated and knowing the symptoms of dehydration is important. You can find out more at: www.nhs.uk/

conditions/dehydration/.Heat exhaustion requires that

you cool down quite quickly, within about 30 minutes, after which there should be no problems. Heat stroke is more serious and requires medical attention. Plenty of advice can be found at: www.nhs.uk/conditions/heat-exhaustion-heatstroke/.

Staff have said our training is in the top 20% of

the NHS

For more information about working with us visit: www.thh.nhs.uk/jobs.

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YEAR REVIEW FeATURe

Better care for patients in A&eNurses, doctors and their colleagues in A&e at Hillingdon Hospital are celebrating recognition of work that has helped to improve patient care.

The three-day project focused on speeding up the handover of patients by the London Ambulance Service (LAS). The hospital had been facing a number of challenges around timely ambulance handover and high numbers of patients waiting in corridors awaiting assessment.

Hillingdon had been struggling, with its ambulance handover times being among the poorest in London. Work was already underway to alleviate the situation, and an extension to the A&e Department was opened last autumn – complete with assessment bays, a dementia -friendly room and an ambulance trolley handover area. The project complemented this work.

Involving the teams

Specialist Nurse Kirsty Farrell explained how, in collaboration with NHS Improvement, the project was delivered: “My role as workshop lead, along with A&e Sister Kim Pendergast, was to help prepare the team in the weeks leading up to the event.

“This was done with communications about what was happening and why, listening to concerns and giving everyone a chance to contribute with suggestions for improvement.

“Something that really stood out for me was the enthusiasm from all the staff involved. It was great that we had a variety of skills and experience which allowed for all voices to be heard. In addition to this, the positivity from one of our middle grade doctors was fantastic and really helped drive the improvement.”

Team involved in Ambulance Handover Project

Great results

Kirsty added: “The results during the three days were fantastic. To see how moving the assessment area could have such an impact on ambulance turnarounds and to see the hospital go from the fourth worst performing trust in London to the second best in such a short space of time was amazing. Not only that, there was a significant reduction in the number of ‘lost’ ambulance hours.

“However, I think the main result from this event was the change in mind-set of the staff. We were always good at hospitalising our patients and with the previous ambulance flow, staff would automatically look for a trolley to put the patient on. It was great to see how simply by moving the location of the ambulance

handovers, staff were able to look at alternative pathways which enabled an improved flow for patients.”

Change in culture

Perhaps most importantly, has been the change in culture. Kirsty said: “Staff were not always involved in the decision-making process within A&e and often others would have the final say in what happened.

“The motivation it has given staff has been great to see. The passion and drive of everyone since the improvement event has meant that we all feel we can make suggestions and bring new ideas to the table within the department.”

The team will find out if they have been successful in the HSJ Awards on Wednesday 6 November.

It was great that we had a variety of skills and experience which allowed for all voices to be heard

Working with London Ambulance Service staff

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Their ambulance handover project has been shortlisted in the category of Best Patient Safety Initiative in A&e, in the prestigious HSJ Patient Safety Awards.

The passion and drive of everyone since the improvement event has meant that we all feel we can make suggestions and bring new ideas

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FeATURe

State-of-the-art training for staff at HillingdonTraining is as close as it gets to real situations in our high-tech Sim Centre.

John Smiddy, Junior Doctor and Simulation Clinical Fellow, is part of a large team who run the centre; maintaining the equipment, designing courses and situations, briefing participants and operating some of the mannequin’s responses during the training.

He says: “The centre is a fantastic asset to the Trust as simulation allows staff to prepare for real life scenarios; providing exposure to a clinical situation before seeing it first-hand, promoting thorough learning and allowing staff to practice non-technical skills such as teamwork and good communication.”

During the training participants can be watched by their peers as

they respond to various situations, and afterwards carry out a debrief together of what went well and where improvements could be made.

Training is multi-disciplinary and multi-professional

The centre runs many different courses based on a range of scenarios. Training is multi -disciplinary and multi-professional and each session is geared towards achieving specific learning outcomes.

These could be specific to departments, for example maternity or neonatal care, or they might be based on particular circumstances, such as the sessions

for night-shift staff. There is even a new course under development to train medical staff in the management of difficult end of life care situations. Occasionally, sessions are based on how the hospital might react in the event of a serious incident.

Nurses at any level and speciality, doctors of all grades and specialities, pharmacists, technicians, healthcare support workers and midwifery support workers are all able to take advantage of the training.

Designed to react as close to a real human patient as possible

The centre currently has three training mannequins, known as high-fidelity sim models (robots), SimMan 3G, SimMom and SimJunior, and they are designed to react as close to a real patient as possible.

Their eyelids react, opening and closing according to how they are feeling, and the pupils respond when a light is shone in them. The mannequin’s pulse and blood pressure all respond to treatment, and they can even talk (or moan) which is controlled by the training staff from a discreet control room.

All the training sessions are recorded and colleagues are able to watch the sessions from monitors in the briefing rooms.

Training provides better quality of care

The simulation centre plays an important role in training staff for both everyday scenarios and

serious incidents. Training has been shown to provide better patient satisfaction and better quality of care.

Feedback from participants is very positive, both about the overall experience and relevance of the training. Comments have included: “Very realistic and challenging scenarios” and “Useful to learn from mistakes in a controlled environment”.

John Smiddy agrees: “There can be some excellent discussion about how we manage emergencies in a clinical setting, from working together as a team to the technical aspects, and it is always great to see people reflect on their experiences and relate these to clinical practice. I often feel like I learn a lot from those taking part in the sessions and hope that they feel the same way too.”

John Smiddy, second from left, with the rest of the Simulation Centre Team

The simulation centre plays an important role in training staff for both everyday scenarios and serious incidents

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Fact file

Opened in November 2015

Set up cost: £240,000

Capable of running up to 400 half-day courses a year

In 2018 there were 98 courses with 792 participants Approximately 10L fake blood is used each year for obstetric simulation alone.

A maternity training session

The simulation Centre is a specially designed training unit at Hillingdon Hospital allowing practical and safe training of health professionals, working in multi-disciplinary groups using state-of-the-art mannequins (robots) as patients.

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Did you know...

The Frailty Team see approximately 250 patients every month.

The NHS in England is the first health system in the world to systematically identify people, aged 65 and over, who are living with moderate and severe frailty using an appropriate assessment tool.

Around 10% of people aged over 65 in the UK have frailty, rising to between a quarter and a half of those over 85.

Older people living with frailty are at risk of dramatic deterioration in their physical and mental wellbeing after an apparently small event which challenges their health (eg infection, new medication, fall, constipation or urine retention).

Frailty is not an inevitable part of ageing; it is a long-term condition like diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease.

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FeATURe

Improving Patient Flow with the Frailty TeamThe Frailty Team is made up of several smaller units and disciplines which, combined, see around 5,000 adult patients each week.

Frailty is related to the ageing process, that is, simply getting older. It describes how our bodies gradually lose their in-built reserves, leaving us vulnerable to sudden changes in health, often triggered by seemingly small events such as a minor infection or a change in medication or environment.

is short, and the care, when the patient moves on, is the best it can be.

People aged 85 and over are 10 times more likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency admission and have a longer stay. Furthermore, frailty patients are more susceptible to hospital-acquired infections, the longer they stay in hospital.

At Hillingdon Hospital, a dedicated 10-bed frailty unit comprises of six frailty specialists including occupational therapists, physiotherapists and nurses. The team covers the unit alongside rapid access clinics, four frailty assessment areas and the emergency department which has designated frailty cubicles to

If you want to capture the essence of a Frailty Team’s mission then Senior Sister Debbie Peat (in the photo on the far right) is the person to ask: “Admission avoidance through early supported discharge.” That six-word phrase, however, carries a great deal of meaning – medication, a care package, falls prevention; the support is wide and deep, but keeping people out of hospital wherever possible is paramount.

“It’s about getting patients into hospital, turned around and home or to onward care within 72 hours, through early supported discharge,” says Debbie. However, while the patient is in hospital, the multi-disciplinary Frailty Team gets straight to work to ensure the stay

Members of the Frailty Team pictured on Lister Ward

Since setting up the unit in 2017, there has been a significant decrease in the length of stay and an increase in the number of discharges home from the unit

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speed up frailty input. The frailty service also consists

of five consultant geriatricians and a nursing team, and the full team has developed competencies to ensure all staff are working to the same standard to provide the very best care for this group of patients.

Improving length of stay

The team is very proud that since setting up the unit in 2017, there has been a significant decrease in the length of stay and an increase in the number of discharges home from the unit.

early intervention is key to

ensuring the shortest possible stay in hospital, and patients are screened and given a score, with those scoring above a certain level receiving a comprehensive assessment. This system has reduced inpatient stay, as all patient details and history have been acquired and a discharge plan put in place.

Crucially, the presence of the Frailty Team in the hospital has improved the flow of these patients through the hospital. Patients are identified early on in A&e and taken to the Frailty Assessment Areas, reducing the amount of time spent in A&e.

The Frailty Team is now a critical

cog in A&E, being the first point of contact for frailty patients. Furthermore, in staff feedback, 75% of the A&e Team agree that the Frailty Team is helping patient flow.

The team also works closely with community partners to enable frailty patients to stay out of hospital through early intervention. These services include Harlington Hospice Night Sitters, Rapid Response, Age UK Take Home and Settle and H4ALL. There are a number of dedicated pathways for frailty patients and the team ensures a smooth transition from hospital to community.

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Focus on the Leadership Team

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TeAM FOCUS

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directors. every board in the NHS has a Chief executive, a Medical Director, a Chief Nurse, a Chief Operating Officer and a Finance Director. It is then for each organisation to appoint other senior directors that it feels are necessary to lead and manage the hospital.

The Chief executive

The most senior executive director is the Chief executive, Sarah Tedford, who joined us in November last year. The Chief executive leads the executive Team and is accountable to the Board and ultimately The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is led by a Trust Board that provides strategic leadership; ensuring our hospitals deliver on the NHS Constitutional Standards and deliver patient care within a set budget.

The Trust Board is accountable to the Council of Governors, who are elected and drawn from our local community and partner organisations. It is made up of two parts, the executive directors and the non-executive directors. Non-executive directors are not Trust employees. Their role is two-fold, to provide additional expertise in areas often not covered by existing members, and an external perspective on the organisation and they are there to hold the executive-directors to account; to ensure there are robust systems of financial control and risk management in place.

In this issue we are shining a spotlight on the executive

for the operational delivery of the Trust, meaning she is also the ‘Accountable Officer’.

Sarah has worked in the NHS all her life, starting out as a nurse. She says: “I am passionate about ensuring patients have the right care at the right time, delivered by empowered and compassionate staff. We have some significant challenges here at the Hillingdon Hospitals and I am delighted to be working with a strong team.

“We need to live within our means, keeping to our budget each month and we need to have a plan for our estate, our clinical services and our people. We know that our estate needs plenty of focus and I am committed to listening to staff, hearing their ideas and making sure we’re a strong, clinically-led organisation.

“There have been some changes to the team and those have been

made to make sure we have the right people to support our staff as we go through these challenging times.”

Strategic plans

“Appointing Jason Seez as Deputy CeO is an important step as he will lead the work on our strategic plans going forward. We have also welcomed other team members, all joining us with relevant experience and a passion and commitment to patient care.

“Our new team are already putting actions in place to ensure we are making positive changes to the organisation, in order to provide the best possible care to our local community. We are here to give support and guidance, and really do enjoy meeting staff and patients, so please talk to us about any challenges or opportunities.”

Meet the team:

Sarah Tedford, Chief executive (pictured third from right). Leads the executive Team and is the Accountable Officer ie she is responsible for operational delivery within the organisation.

Jason Seez, Deputy Chief executive and Director of Strategy (pictured fourth from right). Strategy and transformation, corporate governance, estates and business development.

Dr Cathy Cale, Medical Director(pictured third from left). Clinical leadership, medical education and revalidation.

Dr Dean Spencer, Interim Chief Operating Officer (pictured second from left). Management of all clinical divisions, business continuity, health and safety and site management.

Jacqueline Walker, Chief NurseNursing, infection control and safeguarding.

Terry Roberts, Director of People and Organisational

Development (pictured second from right). Recruitment, nurse education, occupational health, training and development.

Jenny Greenshields, Finance Director (pictured far left). Procurement, contracts and digital services.

Tahir Ahmed, estates Director estates and facilities, responsible for the buildings and facilities, including cleaning and catering.

Sarah Pinch, Interim Communications Director (pictured fourth from left).Internal and external communication and stakeholder management.

Some of the Executive Team

We are here to give support and guidance, and really do enjoy meeting staff and patients, so please talk to us about any challenges or opportunities

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Our Trust has a Council of Governors which is chiefly tasked with holding our non-executive directors to account, so I am involved in the day-to-day matters of the hospital and its plans for the future. Some of the governors are elected by the public membership of the Trust, others elected by nursing, medical and support staff who work at Hillingdon and Mount Vernon. Additionally, interests are represented by the borough, London Ambulance Service, Healthwatch, and local health providers.

My role in the Trust is Head of Spiritual and Pastoral Care, so when people ask me where I work, I answer ‘all over’. I am fortunate to be able to meet staff, patients and the public; across many areas of the hospitals and gain perspective from many angles.

Recently I took part in a hospital initiative called ‘Ward Accreditation’. Teams of staff and governor volunteers are tasked

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CHRISTMAS

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GoVERNoRS’ VoICE

GoVERNoRS’ VoICE

GOVeRNORS’ VOICe

A great education for me

with visiting the hospital wards with long lists of items to be inspected for both quality and compliance. The exercise is very similar to the inspections done by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). I accompanied three very skilled nurses onto our wards and I must say it was a great education for me, and a good initiative for all concerned; inspectors and all ward staff striving together towards best practice. By the way, the wards I saw received very good marks and some helpful pointers.

I am a member of a number of forums at the hospital that pertain to staff, patients, and the public. Our CAReS Ambassadors (staff) promote those five core values in the Trust; equality, Diversity and Inclusion apply to us all; and the end of Life Committee enhances a core task of care. All of these groups offer me the opportunity to work with the designated non- executive directors who are part of each group, and thus to fulfil my

Find out more

If you would like to contact a governor or would like to find out more about the Foundation Trust then contact the Foundation Trust Office on: 0800 8766953, email: thh-tr.foundation@nhs.net or write to: Foundation Trust Membership Office, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Pield Heath Road, Uxbridge UB8 3NN.

role as governor. Additionally I am keen to see that the recruitment, retention and support of staff is a high priority. We really are fortunate in our new staff joining, the long-serving people and our generous volunteers.

Jack Creagh, Staff Governor

@HillingdonNHSFT

Follow us:

bit.do/youtubehillingdonHillingdonNHSFT HillingdonNHSFT

Meetings in 2019

The next Council of Governors meetings will be taking place on:

Tuesday 9 July Thursday 10 October

PIP (Patients in Partnership) Meetings will be held on:

Tuesday 23 July Tuesday 26 November

All take place from 6.30pm in the education Centre, Hillingdon.

Jack

Jack Creagh talks about his Support Staff Governor role

For more information about the governors visit the hospital website at: thh.nhs.uk.