Entitled “Outstanding by 2020”, this is what our local health services, provided by the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) are aiming to be. ESHT, which provides the services on the ground floor of the hospital at Rye, held its Annual General Meeting on August 7, in Eastbourne.
Employing 7,100 staff members across the Trust and with two acute hospitals and 100 community sites, this integrated community and acute Trust provides the services to people living in Rye, and, through the local Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, takes integrated care more widely across Sussex and East Surrey.
It was an interesting and useful day, to which members of the public were invited and encouraged to take part and ask questions. The Trust Board, led by Chairman David Clayton-Smith and Chief Executive Dr Adrian Bull, held their meeting in public in the morning, and members of staff from the different divisions and management of the acute hospitals (Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital, Hastings) and community services, set up “market stalls” in the lunch break.
There was, for example, one about staff health and wellbeing, a really important part of the Trust’s strategy to raise the morale of the staff and improve recruitment and retention. A reduction in medical vacancies from 14% to 4% is a clear indicator of this.
Actual services, like the Out of Hospital Division, which includes community rehabilitation teams and the new fraility team were represented, alongside research being undertaken which may be of particular interest to individuals, and, importantly for hospital and community services, users.
Health and Social Care Connect is the point of telephone contact for adults and carers over 18 “with health, care and support needs to access information, advice and community services in East Sussex”. Telephone: 0345 60 80 191
The formal AGM in the afternoon received the 2017/2018 Annual Report and Quality Account, had presentations on the successes and challenges facing the whole of the Trust, covered clinical and quality matters and finances and then opened for questions, managed to cover both the legal requirements of the AGM and the queries and comments from about 50 people who were attending the afternoon session.
One of the most encouraging aspects was the result of the recent Care Quality Commission Report (July 2018). The CQC rated the Trust as “Good” or “Outstanding” in almost all the services they inspected. They noted that the Trust had made a marked improvement in the quality of its care. It does remain in special measures for finance, and has in place a plan to address this. The plans for “Looking Ahead: Outstanding by 2020” are on the Trust website.
“What matters to you matters to us all” was the statement at the bottom of the day’s Agenda. The audience agreed wholeheartedly with this, as demonstrated by the attendance and contribution of all the participants, members of staff, the Board and most importantly, the public and service users, without whom there would be no need for an NHS Trust.
Photos: Rye News Library
Image Credits: J. Minter , Rye News library .