Chief Executive’s Blog

May 2012

15th

• Our stars, Open Day and wayfinding
  It was an honour and a privilege to be at Chelsea Football Club last night for the first Chelsea and Westminster Star Awards evening when the winners of our new annual staff awards scheme were announced. This was a most successful evening, enjoyed by everyone who was there—more than 170 staff from throughout the hospital, many of whom were either shortlisted or were there to support colleagues who had been shortlisted.

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April 2012

30th

• Open Day, wayfinding and Directors’ Den
  I’m looking forward to seeing you at our annual Open Day on Saturday 12 May from 11am—3pm. Each year I’m always pleased to see so many patients, Foundation Trust members and people from our local community join us to find out more about what we do at Chelsea and Westminster.

18th

• ‘It’s who we are’—our values
  I have discussed the importance of defining the Trust’s values in a number of my blog entries over the last few months. Development of our values was centred on the need for us to emphasise our patient-focused approach to everything that we do as an organisation and as individual members of staff.

2nd

• NHS Staff Survey
  I am delighted that the results of the NHS Staff Survey, published by the Department of Health on 20 March for every NHS trust in England, demonstrate further improvement in our communication between senior management and staff. This is a significant achievement at a time when we have been asking staff to not only improve the quality of care and overall experience for patients but also make annual cost savings of almost £20 million, often by working differently and adjusting to changes in their job roles and responsibilities.

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March 2012

19th

• Staying ‘Fit for the Future’
  While politicians and the media continue to focus on the travails of the Government's Health and Social Care Bill, the focus for NHS chief executives like myself as we prepare to enter a new financial year on 1 April remains enhancing quality while at the same time reducing costs. Here at Chelsea and Westminster we launched our Fit for the Future programme in March 2010 to improve the quality of patient care and deliver significant efficiency savings.

5th

• Score 1 for the NHS
  As politicians, trade unions and media commentators debate the future of the NHS and the Government's Health and Social Care Bill, a recent article in the Daily Mail comparing hospital care in the US and here at Chelsea and Westminster made fascinating reading. The article was headlined 'This woman had one emergency op at America's hospital to the stars and another on the NHS. So where did she get the best care?'

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February 2012

23rd

• Patients tell us what they think about our outpatients
  I was encouraged that in the national NHS outpatients survey published by the Care Quality Commission last week, 93% of Chelsea and Westminster patients who completed the survey said they would recommend our outpatient services to their friends and family. It was also heartening that 91% of our patients who took part in the survey had confidence in the doctors treating them and overall 89% of patients rated their care as 'Excellent', 'Very good' or 'Good'.

6th

• Help us by voting for our values
  Three years ago, as the size and scale of the financial tsunami facing the NHS became clear, I took a paper to the Trust Board of Directors recommending a strategic approach to the challenge facing us by investing in our future while making significant savings. We set out a plan of work that included shared services work with our Fulham Road partners—the Royal Brompton and Royal Marsden hospitals—investing in our infrastructure to make us more fuel efficient and also developing an electronic document management system.

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January 2012

23rd

• Junior Doctors, our values and our hospital school
  When we decided to allow BBC TV cameras to spend four months in the hospital last year following a group of junior doctors in their first jobs, some people (both here at Chelsea and Westminster and elsewhere) described it as a brave decision. The first of six one-hour episodes of the resulting documentary series Junior Doctors: Your Life In Their Hands will be shown at 9pm on BBC3 tomorrow night (Tuesday 24 January) and so you can judge the fruits of the BBC team's labours for yourselves. I hope you enjoy it and agree with me that it is a fascinating and largely positive portrait of our hospital.

9th

• Changes for the new year
  Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you are all looking forward to another busy and exciting year at Chelsea and Westminster. As I announced last week, I will be leaving the Trust this summer after 12 years as Chief Executive and I would like to thank you to everyone who has contacted me with messages of goodwill for the future.

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December 2011

22nd

• Reflecting on the past year
  As the year draws to a close, I would like to thank all staff for helping to make this another successful year at Chelsea and Westminster—despite the tough economic times we are living in. I do not underestimate the demands that we place on our staff in asking them to work with us to make significant efficiencies—9% of controllable spend during this financial year—while continuing to improve the quality of care that we provide to patients.

16th

• Looking ahead to next year
  In my last blog entry I was proud to let you know about a fantastic achievement which was a real credit to all staff who work at Chelsea and Westminster when we were named as the best hospital in England for low mortality rates in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide. This was an important recognition of the quality and safety of the care that staff at Chelsea and Westminster provide for our patients but I am not complacent about our performance and I know that we must always look for ways to improve further.

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November 2011

28th

• Dr Foster success, being open and new partnerships
  I am proud to be able to use my blog entry this week to let you know about a fantastic achievement which is a real credit to all staff who work at Chelsea and Westminster.

14th

• When things go wrong
  What happens when things go wrong? How the NHS responds when it fails to meet the high standards that the public rightly expect has been under the microscope—both in the House of Lords and at the public inquiry into events at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.

1st

• The changing face of healthcare
  Chelsea and Westminster is a partner in the North West London Integrated Care Pilot (ICP) which is gaining many plaudits for its efforts to 'join up' (or integrate) the care of patients aged 75 and over and also patients living with diabetes. It has been shortlisted in two categories of this year's Health Service Journal Awards—the NHS Oscars—been featured on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and was described during BBC1's Question Time by GP and comedian Dr Phil Hammond as "wonderful".

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October 2011

20th

• What can the NHS learn from Steve Jobs?
  What can the NHS learn from Steve Jobs? Much has been written about the influence of the Apple Chief Executive since his death. I take inspiration from his response when asked what made his company outstanding.

3rd

• Fostering a culture of innovation
  In the current economic climate, every public and private sector organisation faces the same challenge—how to do more for less. Here at Chelsea and Westminster, we must provide the excellent services that our patients rightly demand while making significant efficiency savings—our cost improvement programme for the current financial year is equivalent to 9% of our controllable costs.

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September 2011

19th

• Communicating with our patients
  I was delighted to see so many patients, members of the public and staff at our Annual Members' Meeting last Thursday. The fact that our annual meeting is so well-attended shows just how important it is that we ensure our hospital's services meet the needs of those who rely on us and how interested people are in what we are doing here at Chelsea and Westminster.

5th

• Welcome
  Welcome to my new fortnightly Chief Executive's Blog which I hope will offer an interesting insight into the running of this Trust and the issues that the Board and I face. I look forward to using my blog as a way of keeping staff, patients, members of the public, GPs and others regularly informed and receiving feedback from you all.