Hello,

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and managed to take some time out ready for another week. As always, thank you to everyone working over the busy bank holiday weekend.

Before we look at the week ahead, I wanted to update you all on a really good “Catchball” session we had last week with divisional chiefs and our executive team. These sessions are a perfect opportunity for us to deep dive into the plans and key challenges facing our clinical divisions in the coming year – as well as how they will overcome these and deliver safe, high-quality services, all whilst balancing our overall financial recovery agenda. No department can exist alone, and it was particularly good to hear how departments will work closely together as one team to support each other and deliver for our patients.

Last week I also met with the Directors of Adult Services in Surrey and West Sussex to discuss how we can work together more innovatively to ensure effective pathways for those patients who no longer meet the criteria to reside.

Looking outwards  

This week for me is a lot about looking beyond the walls of our trust and towards more collaborative working with our system partners.

Today I am taking part in the next Surrey Provider Collaborative Workshop where we will be formalising how Surrey’s acute and mental health trusts will work together to address services most under pressure - such as mental health, endoscopy and cancer - and agree the shared clinical priorities we will focus on in the year ahead.

On Wednesday, I will be visiting Eastbourne District General Hospital with other Chief Executives from our Sussex ICB to welcome Lesley Watts, the NHS’s National SRO for Discharge. While I know our Let’s Get You Home work has pulled us on leaps and bounds in the area of discharge, I think it will be really interesting and important to present our plans as an ICB to Lesley, and hear more from her as well as our other system partners, on how they are looking at this issue to see if there is anything more we can learn – or indeed share with them.

On Thursday I will also attend the Safety and Quality Committee, the first for our new Chief Nurse Tina Hetherington who will play a vital role in this forum going forward. Here we will discuss key safety and quality issues we have identified and how we will focus on the foundations of care - such as pressure ulcer prevention and deconditioning. Getting these right will lead to better outcomes for patients. We have a great learning culture hear at SASH and that’s why it’s so important that we really understand root causes of incidents so that we can take actions that will make a real difference to our patients and staff.

This week I will also be meeting the chair of Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) to discuss the recovery plans for dealing with backlogs in the service - specifically in histopathology – as well as exploring ways to strengthen our performance and build on the progress we have already made.

Pay award

You will have seen the recent communications from Elizabeth Nyawade, our Director of People and Culture, on the national AFC pay award – which gives AFC staff a one-off payment for 2022/23 and a 5% salary uplift for 2023/24 backdated to April in their June pay. As an extra step, we as a trust are also offering affected staff on Universal Credit the option to receive these payments in instalments to help mitigate any potential impact on their benefits. To request this, please email payroll by midnight tomorrow (31 May).

SASH Fantasy Football League

On Thursday, amongst lots of other important meetings, I also get the pleasure of ending the day by handing out some very prestigious awards to the participants of our SASH Fantasy Premier League! With the Premier League winners Manchester City officially crowned, it’s time to see who has earnt themselves top spot in the SASH FPL.

Car parking

Finally, as many of you know staff car park charging will begin this Thursday 1 June 2023. Season tickets are available from the Glide App or our pay machines if you don’t want to pay as you go. 

Best wishes,

Angela Stevenson
Chief executive