Hello all,
During May the Trust approved the start of the early enabling works for the new Urgent Treatment Centre. We also launched our 2027 Star Awards, celebrated a number of important staff awareness days, and announced the date of our 2026 Annual General Meeting.
Our services
Urgent Treatment Centre works begin on site
As part of the early enabling works needed for our new UTC, our contractors need to connect underground mains utilities to what will be the new UTC site. To support this safely, a temporary one-way traffic system will be introduced near the main entrance of East Surrey Hospital from Monday 1 June to Tuesday 23 June 2026. While these works are necessary, we recognise that they will cause disruption and may lead to additional congestion at peak times. We have carefully weighed this up and worked with key departments across the Trust, as well as external stakeholders such as Metrobus, the council and the ambulance service, to agree plans in advance and ensure additional signage on site to support the flow of traffic. We also have agreement from the contractors that they will complete the work as quickly as possible to enable us to lift those traffic restrictions sooner. You can find out more information here.
2027 SASH Star Awards now open
This year we wanted to do something a bit different in our preparations for our 2027 SASH Star Awards and have decided to open the nominations much earlier. This means you can already put forward a deserving colleague or team by submitting your nomination on our website.
This year there are 10 categories including two new awards – the SASH+ award and treating people fairly award – which recognise the Trust’s commitment to equality and our SASH+ improvement system. All entries must evidence what your nominee has done over the last 12 months which you feel meets the criteria. Now, while nominations are open until 30 September 2026, it’s always worth getting your entry in sooner rather than later. All shortlisted entries will be invited to the SASH Star Awards evening in March 2027.
Our partners
Strengthening our work with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust
We are strengthening our system working with SABP over the coming months, including introducing an additional seconded leadership role from next month to provide more direct clinical and operational integration within our acute and community teams. This is intended to support improved management of patients with mental health needs, clearer clinical ownership, and faster decision-making across pathways. Alongside this, the Trust is progressing the implementation of an Enhanced Therapeutic Observation and Care (ETOC) approach to improve the identification and management of patients who are clinically better but remain in hospital. A number of substantive mental health nursing and healthcare assistant posts have been funded in order to reduce our reliance on temporary staff. Together, these actions are expected to improve patient flow, reduce length of stay and support more effective system-wide discharge coordination as part of the wider urgent and emergency care improvement programme.
Kent Surrey and Sussex Deanery visit
We recently had our annual education quality review visit by the Kent Surrey and Sussex Deanery team. The Deanery team met with senior executive and education leaders to find out more about out educational activity, our successes, innovations and barriers. They also met with education leads across the Trust and reviewed some of our feedback, action plans and opportunities for change. The initial feedback has been really positive which is very welcome, especially since we were the first acute Trust to be visited under this arrangement.
Trust news
International Day of the Nurse and International Day of the Midwife
This month the Trust also celebrated International Day of the Nurse and International Day of the Midwife, which was an opportunity to recognise our brilliant nursing and midwifery workforce across the Trust and the work they do every day to care for our patients. To mark the event, as well as visits to teams across the Trust, our new Chief Nurse held the DAISY Team Award ceremony to help recognise teams across the Trust who have demonstrated exceptional care. The Trust also held a “The joy of midwifery conference” to highlight the immense value of our midwives and the pivotal role they play with the Trust and wider community.
AGM
We have now set the date for our 2026 Annual General Meeting, which will take place on Wednesday 15 July 2026 between 6pm and 7.30pm, both in-person at East Surrey Hospital and virtually via an online link. All are welcome to attend to help celebrate some of our successes of the last year, as we hear from some of our clinical teams involved in making those a reality, as well as looking to our plans for the year ahead. If you’d like to ask a question at the AGM, you can do so either in person, by submitting one in advance by emailing sash.
Executive leadership update
In May, we announced the appointment of Stephen Wells to the substantive Executive Director of Estates and Facilities role. Stephen, who is currently Director of Estates and Facilities at the University of East Anglia, has worked within the Higher Education sector for almost 16 years and in the estates and facilities industry overall for more than 30 years. He has held similar senior estates positions at London South Bank University, Queen Mary University of London and University College London. In his early career, Stephen spent a number of years in Estates and Facilities roles for the NHS across the South East, so is well versed with the challenges we face.
Stephen will take up his new role in August. In the meantime, I’d like to thank Patrick Blanche for his support and hard work over the last couple of years at the Trust. We wish him every success in his new role with East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
Dementia Action Week
At the end of May, we also marked Dementia Action Week with the launch of our new Dementia Strategy, which sets out to improve local care and support for patients living with dementia. The new strategy focuses on improving identification of patients with dementia, completing good quality baseline assessments, strengthening patient care, and enhancing partnership working while recognising the vital role of carers.
To support the launch and raise awareness of dementia care, the Trust also organised and supported a range of activities for staff, patients and families for Dementia Action Week including an interview on Radio Redhill and a talk for carers, organised by Action for Carers Surrey, focusing on what to expect when a loved one is admitted to hospital. You can find out more on Dementia Action Week here.