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Hello all,
In July, as well as responding to another amber heat-health alert and a new round of industrial action by resident doctors (formerly known as junior doctors), we also shared with our teams the good news around the completion of the theatre chillers project and the new Emergency Department staff room. We also announced exciting plans for two new theatres at our East Surrey site and the launch of a new paediatric anaesthesia pre-assessment service.
Our services
Industrial action
In July, the BMA announced a new six-month strike action mandate for resident doctors and held the first round of industrial action since last year. Five days of action took place between 25 July and 30 July. Our staff worked hard to look after patients safely and ensure we could continue to keep services running as normal.
Theatre capacity at East Surrey
In July NHS England awarded the Trust £12.7m in capital funding for the building of two new theatres on its East Surrey Hospital site. With our theatres currently operating at maximum capacity, and with elective waiting lists continuing to grow and emergency demand increasing all the time, this is a major milestone for the Trust. The introduction of two new theatres will make a significant difference in helping us to reduce waiting times for surgery - whether that's planned or emergency - which we know is important for local people. All this work will support us in meeting the growing demand for elective procedures and improving patient care amongst the communities we serve. Aside from the huge benefits the new theatres will have for our patients, the news also points to a brighter future for the Trust, which feels especially important as we all start to prepare for another challenging winter.
Our partners
Length of stay
Over the last two years we have been focused on reducing the length of stay for our patients. This winter, we’ve seen continued improvements, with our average non-elective length of stay consistently remaining below five days — a milestone we’ve not achieved in the last two years. In fact, since 2022/23 we have sustainably reduced our average non-elective length of stay by 1–1.5 days, thanks to the hard work of our clinical and operational teams, as well as strong collaboration with our system partners. However, there is still more to do to reduce bed occupancy levels, which is critical to maintaining safe, quality care for our patients. Looking ahead, we will continue working on refining our Models of Care, embedding same-day emergency care pathways, and focusing on reducing the number of patients staying over seven days. These efforts will be supported by partnership initiatives over the coming weeks – helping to ensure we maintain our progress and continue to improve patient care, which is crucial to keeping our services safe through these periods of high demand where our Emergency Department is processing more than 300 attendances a day.
Theatre chillers project
In more good news, the Trust has also recently completed its work to connect its operating theatres at East Surrey Hospital to the newly installed chillers. The project completion is a positive step change as it will ensure us to be able to better manage the temperatures in our theatres at East Surrey Hospital during the summer months, which in turn means better patient experience for those who need planned elective or emergency procedures.
New paediatric anaesthesia pre-assessment service
We have recently launched a new paediatric anaesthesia pre-assessment service to support for young patients coming in for elective procedures. Created in response to new Best Practice Guidance from the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (APAGBI), the new service is the cumulation of many months of hard work which started last September when the team began working with our digital team to create a new pre-assessment pathway that responds to the unique emotional, physical and medical needs of paediatric patients. As part of the new service, the team also offer telephone or face-to-face assessments, detailed discussions with families, and pre-operative tours for children who would like extra support. This approach helps reduce anxiety and prevent on-the-day cancellations - creating a service that offers more personalised care for our youngest patients.
CDC Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) in Redhill
Our plans for a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill are progressing at pace with our partners.
The new centre, funded by NHS England, will increase local access to diagnostic testing and reduce waiting times – helping tens of thousands of local patients get vital tests sooner, without having to attend hospital. The new CDC, which is due to open in September, is expected to carry out almost 40,000 tests in its first year. It builds on the Trust’s existing community diagnostics services at Crawley Hospital. Since launching in April 2023, services at Crawley CDC have already delivered over 173,700 tests and checks – with plans for a further 171,500 tests before the end of March 2026.
Mental health patients in the Emergency Department
In response to the continued rise in patients with complex mental health conditions coming through the Trust’s Emergency Department, the Trust is now in the early stages of a new programme of work with its partners at Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust (SABP) and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT). While many of the details are still being discussed, the aspiration is to create an improved model of care with wraparound partner support to better care for patients with the highest risk of re-attendance to the Emergency Department due to mental health illness and improve patient experience.
Trust news
Net Zero Week
Delivering care sustainably, and supporting our staff, patients, and communities to live more sustainable lifestyles, means better health outcomes, and nationally the NHS has an ambition to make the health service Net Zero by 2040. To mark Net Zero Week and increase understanding about what sustainable healthcare really means for staff and local communities, in July the Trust held a week of activities to help support staff in their greener plans and practices, and promote its seven-point Green Plan – which includes sustainable innovations to protect local biodiversity. Projects such as our woodland project, which was funded through a Forestry Commission grant, has delivered a newly planted 6.5-hectare wood to increase the green space on our East Surrey site for staff and patients.
Celebrating our staff
This month our Chief of People and Culture, Elizabeth Nyawade, was recognised in the HR Most Influential top 30 list for 2025. The peer-nominated list celebrates the foremost practitioners and thinkers in HR, and the people whose ideas and actions are shaping best practice for human resources in the UK. Ranked at number 15 in the practitioners list, Elizabeth was recognised for the robustness of her practice and her influence in the HR practitioners’ field. She was also listed for the work she has done for NHS England, as well as her passion for developing future talent.
Annual General Meeting
The Trust’s will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 19 August at 3.30pm in the Post Graduate Education Centre at East Surrey Hospital. The event will also be streamed live. The AGM is an opportunity for staff, partners and members of the public to find out more about our reflections of the last year as a Trust – our highlights and challenges – and our plans for the future. We will also be sharing some of our clinical success stories in areas where we have seen real progress such as frailty and endoscopy, and the digital and SASH + improvements we have made to improve patient safety. So I hope you will join us if you can.
Finally, this will be my last newsletter to you all as this week I will be retiring from my role as Chief Executive of SASH. It’s been an incredible journey working with so many talented teams and meeting so many patients since I first started as a student nurse in Glasgow back in 1988. It’s been an enormous honour, and I am so grateful for all I have been able to do over the last 37 years, and in particular the last two decades at SASH. I will leave the NHS feeling proud of all that has been achieved with my brilliant colleagues, and in the knowledge that the Trust’s new Chief Executive, Andrew Hines, will do a great job in taking the Trust forward into the next chapter.
Best wishes,
Angela Stevenson
Chief Executive