One Message
The monthly staff briefing
from the Chief Executive
Transformation is taking St George’s to new frontiers
Dear Colleague,
The new Star Trek movie is set to be the
action blockbuster of this summer. It’s the
11th film to be made of the iconic 1960s TV
series which is famous for being ahead of its
time in the technology it featured, including
mobile communications, medical scanners
and video conferencing. The emergence
of such technologies in the `real world` has
transformed the way the NHS operates, saving
both time and money.
The fall-out following the crisis in the world’s
financial markets is set to hit the UK economy
hard over the next few years. The NHS will
be no exception and from 2011 funding for
the service will be under extreme pressure.
Having gone through the pain of turnaround,
St George’s is better placed than most to face
up to the financial uncertainties ahead. We
have a challenging business plan in place for
2009/10 which is vital in order to pave the way
for our Foundation Trust (FT) application. I
cannot emphasise enough how important FT
status will be to the future of St George’s, and
staff will be hearing much more about this in
the weeks and months to come.
As the one major acute hospital for south
west London, St George’s has a key role to play
in ensuring that healthcare services in the
area meet the needs of the local population.
FT status will ensure St George’s has a strong
influence over the future development of
Our values + Treat all these services and drives change rather than
people with respect and simply responding to the actions of others in
dignity + Deliver care in the health system.
partnership with others
+ Continually strive for Our five-year mission
excellence + Ensure As we move towards FT application, so
probity and transparency transforming established ways of working will
in spending public money become a priority for St George’s. We might
+ Be an exemplary not be hitting warp speed just yet but we do
have our own five-year mission to transform
employer + Be committed our service delivery for the benefit of patients
to education, training and and staff.
research + Be open and
honest with each other The work is already reaping rewards. The
Trust was one of just 35 in England, and one
June 2009
of only six in London, to meet the December
2008 target to have 95 per cent of outpatients
and 90 per cent of inpatients and day cases
receiving treatment within 18 weeks of
referral. St George’s has also submitted
successful bids to Healthcare for London to
become both a major trauma centre and
hyper-acute stroke unit. These bids formed
part of a public consultation, the outcome of
which is expected to be announced in late
July.
New ways of working
The productive ward initiative, Releasing Time
to Care, has made a major impact on working
practice in the Trust by providing a systematic
approach to improving the reliability, safety
and efficiency of care. The programme is now
employed across 14 wards and allows staff
to spend more time caring for patients by
improving ward processes and organisation.
News of our success is spreading and we are
receiving regular visits from colleagues in the
NHS and from abroad. We welcomed health
workers from Canada last month and a visit
is also planned by a health executive from
California.
Our investment in the integrated clinical
information programme (iCLIP) is another
example of how St George’s is embracing
change. At its May meeting the Trust Board
endorsed a ‘go live’ date of December 21 2009
for iCLIP. A phased roll-out over the next
three years will have a major impact on our
ability to provide better patient care helping
to reduce duplicate data entries and improve
communications across the Trust.
Working with staff to deliver change
St George’s stated vision is to work tirelessly
to give outstanding care to all patients,
enhancing our position as a leading specialist
teaching hospital at the forefront of health
care, with excellence in service, teaching and
research.
 The work of the Transformation team is
bringing us closer to this ambition. The team
is identifying areas of improvement and
working with staff strategically to deliver
stronger, more efficient working practices.
The Transforming St George’s programme is
about staff working together to streamline
diagnosis and treatment, reduce delays and
ultimately improve outcomes for patients.
Improving customer service
Earlier this year the Transformation team
visited the O2 business call centre in Leeds to
learn how to provide world-class customer
service. As a result of this visit the roll-out
of new staff training programmes started in
March. The Trust also upgraded its Central
Booking Service call centre software to make
it easier for operators to handle the 9,000
calls placed every month. New software
tells callers where they are in the queue and
lets them choose to speak with a specialist
trained to deal with their enquiry. The
upgrade also helps to ensure that patients are
seen in the shortest time possible.
Engaging with staff
To support and encourage staff engagement
in transformation the Trust has developed
the Leadership Forum. This has become a
successful vehicle for the executive team
to meet and discuss service developments
with staff within the Trust. In April the
Transformation team led the Leadership
Forum and asked the 100 staff who attended
for their views on what the organisation
needed to do in order to continue its
transformation journey.
The main themes which emerged from the
feedback related to leadership and strategy,
and how to communicate these effectively
throughout the organisation:
• Training on project and change
management
Our values + Treat all • Communicating with frontline staff
people with respect and • Developing culture and behaviour to
dignity + Deliver care in deliver successful change
partnership with others • Understanding the causes of bullying
+ Continually strive for
• Ensuring accurate and useful data is
available
excellence + Ensure
probity and transparency The feedback is being taken forward by Alan
in spending public money Thorne, Director of Transformation, and an
update on progress will follow during the
+ Be an exemplary
summer.
employer + Be committed
to education, training and
research + Be open and
Continued improvement
honest with each other The transformation team is currently working
on a number of projects, all of which will
deliver measurable improvements in terms
of patient experience, staff motivation and
efficiency. These projects include:
•  educing length of stay in order to
R
create bed capacity for the growing
volume of work
• Improving the customer service
experience of patients when they
attend outpatient clinics
• Increasing critical care capacity
to allow the Trust to care for more
patients with acute needs
• Reviewing the way that the Trust runs
out of the normal hours so that we
provide optimal care to patients 24/7
The team is also working with Staffside on
an exciting piece of work to invest in Bands
1 to 4 members of staff to help them tackle
unacceptable behaviour, between members
of staff or between staff and patients,
including bullying. A successful bid has been
made to NHS London for a grant to fund the
project.
Engaging with patients
The common aim of all the Transformation
projects is the emphasis on engaging with
patients and the staff who deliver care. Future
projects will have strong focus on improving
patients’ experiences and staff morale as
well as helping St George’s to achieve its
business strategy. In the same way as the
productive ward work, most, if not all of the
Transformation projects will help to reduce
the number of unnecessary tasks that staff
find themselves doing, often repeatedly. This
will free-up their time to give more attention
to those tasks that deliver high quality care
and services to our patients.
Current performance
In order to secure St George’s tomorrow
we need to show we can manage today.
I am pleased to report that our overall
performance is looking good. We are
hitting both our A&E and 18 week targets,
while financially our income was £550,000
above the level predicted for April 2009.
Our infection control figures continue to
be good and we have also seen a reduction
in the number of cancelled operations. My
sincere thanks to staff across the Trust for
your continued support. This is a real team
effort and only by working together can we
achieve all of our goals.
David Astley
Chief Executive