Hello all,
Away from the high levels of demand we have seen across our services in March, it has been a month of milestones for the Trust with marking the Charity’s 30th birthday, hosting our annual Star Awards to recognise our teams, and celebrating the official opening of our new CDC in Redhill. Alongside this we also announced plans for digitising our maternity services to deliver more accessible, personalised and continual care pathways for our patients, and the CQC visited our Emergency Department at East Surrey Hospital.
This month we also received the national NHS staff survey results for 2025, with the Trust showing a response rate 5% higher than in 2024, which is really encouraging for supporting us to make the improvements that more staff want to see. Positively we were also in line with or above the national benchmark against all seven of the People Promises/Key Themes, and have seen real improvement in areas such as speaking up, team culture, recognition and staff engagement. That said, there is of course areas we need to do more on such as work pressures, capacity, and violence and aggression, and we are already working with colleagues from across the organisation on co-designing an action plan to address the areas we need to improve on.
Our services
CQC
In March the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited our Emergency Department at East Surrey Hospital to inspect our urgent and emergency care services, as well as the pathway from ED into Medicine. The CQC is incredibly important for us as a healthcare provider. Their work in monitoring and regulating NHS services gives our patients confidence that services are safe and effective, and that feedback supports us to make the right improvements for safe and quality patient care. We await the full report later this year.
Digitising maternity services
This month we announced the launch of our SASH Maternity Connect project – an important step forward in how we support patients across our Trust. For some time, we have been working towards bringing our Maternity services onto a single digital platform, and we are now in a position to put this into action - transforming how maternity information is recorded and shared across the Trust by creating one central digital record that spans the entire pathway - from initial referral, through antenatal care and birth, to postnatal care in the community. This will support us to deliver more accessible, personalised care whether that’s in hospital or in the community and ensure continuity throughout the maternity journey.
Our partners
Opening of Redhill CDC
In March, alongside some of our other local partners, we hosted the Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock at the official opening of our new Community Diagnostic Centre at the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill. The new centre is an exciting new step in our plans to increase local access to diagnostic testing in line with the NHS 10-year plan, and in its first eight weeks has already helped almost 1,400 local patients get vital tests and checks sooner.
Neighbourhood health progress
This month we also participated in a visit with Dr Minal Bakhai, NHS England’s Director of Primary Care and Community Transformation, and National Lead for the Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme. The visit to the Surrey and Sussex pilots – which aim to bring community-based healthcare closer to the homes of local people; with focus on prevention, collaboration, and personalised care - was a really useful session and offered positive feedback on the progress achieved so far. It was great to hear how well primary and community clinicians are working together to enable this new model of care to move forward for local people.
ts get vital tests and checks sooner.
Trust news
SASH Charity turns 30
This year marks 30 years since our Charity brought together the Crawley & Horsham NHS Trust Charitable Fund, and the East Surrey Healthcare NHS Trust Charitable Fund into the Surrey & Sussex Healthcare Charity we know today. In those 30 years they have supported the Trust with hundreds of projects all with the aim of improving the lives of patients and families treated here, and the thousands of staff who work here. To celebrate, we shared photos from key charity moments over the past 30 years with our staff, as well as a highlight video of the work done through our different charity appeals.
The charity also still has a number of discounted charity places available for fundraisers at this year’s Run Gatwick which takes place on 10 May. If you or someone you know would like to join the team, and help raise funds, you can find out more here.
Star Awards
This month we celebrated the inspiring and brilliant work of our teams at the annual Star Awards, which was held once again in at the Mayor’s Office in Reigate. It was a great opportunity to recognise the amazing work of SASH staff over the last year in categories such as patient experience, safety and quality, and innovation and service improvement. The awards are always such a Trust highlight so a huge congratulations again to all the winners and runners up.
International Women’s Day
In March we also celebrated International Women’s Day 2026 with the Trust’ssecond Women of the Year ceremony. Taking a few minutes out of busy workdays to recognise those who make such a notable contribution to our Trust and our patients is so important, and the nominations for this year once again showcased the amazing work the women of SASH do every day.
Best wishes,
Andrew Hines
Chief Executive