Hello all,
November has been another busy month for the Trust with increased and sustained levels of winter demand across our emergency care services, as well as five days of industrial action. This month we did however manage to mark the 10th anniversary of SASH+ – our continuous improvement methodology – and also launched a new network to support our staff.
Our services
Winter demand and industrial action
We went into the latest round of industrial action by resident doctors on the back of a period of sustained and high pressure on our emergency care services with an increasing number of patients coming forward for care over the last month, and more of these than normal needing to be admitted, which caused congestion in our services. To ensure we could continue to run urgent and emergency and planned services, prioritise areas such as cancer care, and look after patients safely, we worked hard to implement our winter plan and take every opportunity to reduce pressure on the ED – including fast-tracking patient discharges where appropriate and encouraging our local community to consider the best NHS service for their needs, as ED is often not the right place for those with non-urgent care needs.
2025 flu campaign
The Trust has a responsibility to help reduce the risks to its services over winter. Infection prevention and control practices such as hand washing, mask-wearing when appropriate, and prevention are a vital part of ensuring we are in the best place possible to care for our staff and our patients in the colder months ahead. In October, the Trust launched its 2025 flu campaign to support our staff to get their flu vaccine and protect themselves and our patients from flu. The campaign has been a great success so far, with now over 44% of our frontline colleagues and 48% overall receiving their flu jab, which put us as the top performer in the South East for the first two weeks of the campaign.
Our partners
Exploring new partnership models
With tighter financial budgets and the NHS 10-year Plan in mind, as a Trust we intend to work even more closely with our partners to explore the best and most sustainable service options for our patients, local community and teams. Building on this, we are currently in discussion with Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, who are considering a closer partnership with either SASH or the group of Royal Surrey and Ashford and St Peter’s hospitals. We expect them to make their decision in December.
Trust news
Men’s Health Network
To add to our established staff networks including the Women’s Network and the LGBTQ+ Network, in November we launched a Men’s Health Network to support male colleagues across the Trust - focusing on physical health, mental health, and overall wellness. It’s a chance to build a community where people can talk openly, share experiences, and find practical ways to look after themselves and each other. In November we held a successful launch event, funded by our very own Trust Charity, with a marketplace of external organisations for those interested in the network to meet others and help shape what this new network can offer.
10th anniversary of SASH+
10 years ago, following a hugely competitive process with dozens of other NHS Trusts, SASH became one of just five Trusts to partner with the Virginia Mason Institute. That was when our SASH+ journey began and since then our teams have developed our SASH+ approach and made it a central part of how we unlock new ideas and improvements to the way we work both together and for our patients. Whether we are looking at how we can remove waste from our processes to reduce patient waiting times or improving our daily management and digitising our patient pathways, it’s been a vital part of the Trust’s identity over the last decade and how we improve patient care, and we are running a number of internal sessions to give our teams time to reflect and celebrate what SASH+ means to them a decade on.
Best wishes,
Andrew Hines
Chief Executive