| Welcome to Blueprint | | Welcome to Blueprint May 2022.
We start with the news that our board has reached a major milestone in agreeing options to put forward to the New Hospital Programme in our outline business case for redeveloping our three hospital sites. As regular readers of Blueprint will know, the outline business case is the second of three business cases that have to be completed to secure the funding and approvals for our redevelopment plans. More on that later on…
During May there were two other key meetings – both with a transport theme. The first was a session with transport experts and local authorities about improving travel and access to our hospital sites and the second was a transport and access reference group meeting. Actions from each of these will be followed up and further updates will follow.
We’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to attend our travel and access sessions and provide feedback on the board papers for the May meeting. | | |
| Trust board approves redevelopment options | On Tuesday 31 May our trust board considered several papers (economic, financial and strategic) relating to a range of costed options for new and better buildings at our three hospital sites. They approved the preferred options for a large new hospital building to house all clinical services on land next to Watford General Hospital and some new hospital buildings and significant refurbishment at Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City hospitals.
Before the board took its decisions on preferred options, members considered a paper reviewing the shortlist of options that was agreed in October 2020. We know that some stakeholders passionately believe that a new emergency care hospital on a new site would be the best long-term solution and do not agree with previous decisions to only consider options based on our existing hospital sites.
The board spent some time considering whether, given national delays to the New Hospital Programme and several other factors affecting cost and timescale, more work should be done to look at new site options.
Following this discussion the board re-confirmed their decision of 2020 when they ruled out the possibility of a new (non-Watford) site for emergency care. This decision was taken due to the extra time and higher risk involved in looking at new site options and the need to urgently press on with our plans for new and better buildings as quickly as possible.
You can read our press release about this here where the trust’s chairman Phil Townsend recognises the importance of this local debate saying “The question of where to locate emergency hospital services draws such a wide range of views that it is impossible to please everyone. Our hope is that in time, people will understand that we are acting in the best interests of patient safety. And there simply isn’t any higher priority than that.
“With every passing month our buildings become harder and more costly to maintain. This would be a worry for any organisation but when you consider that we are in the business of caring for unwell and vulnerable people of all ages and for women giving birth, the responsibility to deliver a solution quickly is huge.”
The agreed preferred options will now be further developed as we finalise the outline business case. We are waiting for further feedback from the New Hospital Programme before finalising the outline business case.
The board papers for 31 May can be viewed here. You may also find the recording of our 6 May 2022 stakeholder update session useful where we set out what is in the papers and answered stakeholder questions ahead of the board meeting. | |
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Welcoming our new chief executive
As you may have heard a new chief executive for the trust has been appointed. Matthew Coats will join us from the Cabinet Office in July. He has already shown a lot of interest in our redevelopment plans and recognises the critical importance of securing improvements to our hospital facilities as part of our continued drive to deliver the very best care for every patient, every day.
This month we sadly say goodbye to Helen Brown, deputy chief executive. We send her our best wishes for her new role as chief executive at Whittington Health and thank her for her time and dedication to the redevelopment programme.
We also say farewell and a big thank you to Duane Passman who is also leaving us at the end of June when his two year contract ends. Please be assured that these changes will not slow down our efforts to secure funding. Clare Parker, director of strategy and integration, will be taking overall leadership for the redevelopment programme, supported by executive colleagues and key members of the trust’s redevelopment team (including Esther Moors and Tim Duggleby who have both worked on the redevelopment programme for many years now).
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Travelling to our hospital sites
Tackling a key concern for patients
One of the key concerns from our patients and other stakeholders is travel and access to our hospital sites. There is much work afoot to address the issues patients are experiencing as well as making travel to our sites more sustainable.
We are working with a company called Systra who are assisting us to develop a sustainable or ‘green’ travel plan. The first stage of this work is to gather more data about how patients, visitors and staff currently travel to our hospital sites and to get views on how we can make it easier to access our hospitals. We will be giving a particular focus to what can be done to encourage staff not to come to work by car.
Car parking
We are excited that our new multi-storey car park at Watford General is now open and is providing modern, accessible and safe parking facilities for patients, visitors and staff. There have been no reports of queueing or struggling to find a space. Please see the animation of the car park and leaflet about it here. The position of the car park and the fact that there are lifts to all floors means that visitors no longer need to walk up to down the steepest part of the hill. And pay on exit has removed the burden of trying to estimate how long your visit will be.
We are looking at options to improve car parking on our other sites, particularly St Albans. There is a limit to how much car parking capacity can be created so an important part of our planning is to consider how we can best provide alternatives to private car travel and reduce the number of car journeys. One option we will be looking at is a car sharing scheme for staff.
Public transport and active travel
We are working with Hertfordshire County Council and local councils to look at opportunities to improve public transport to our hospitals. This will include walking and cycling infrastructure to ensure these are viable, safe options for those who are able, reducing pressure on the roads and car parking and promoting health and reduced emissions in the area.
Providing clear information
Clear information on travelling to our sites is also vital which is why we have improved our web pages on this. When we met with the travel and access reference group this month we asked them to help us. The pages are still under development and we will let you know when we are ready for feedback. But by all means, do look at what is there now if you want to and send us your feedback via westherts.redevelopment@nhs.net.
The session, as always, gave food for thought and we are chasing up the issue of the postcode (we don’t yet have one for the car park) and the great suggestion of using a ‘what three words’ location for digital navigation. If you’d like to join future travel and access meetings please email us at westherts.redevelopment@nhs.net.
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Emergency care
The evolving role of the emergency department and urgent care
We are often asked why there can’t be an emergency department (ED) in all our hospitals. Whilst we recognise everyone would like the comfort of knowing there is an ED close to home, this is not sustainable (or clinically advisable) in terms of providing a 24-hour service with appropriately trained, expert staff and access to all the resources necessary to deliver safe care. Emergency care will continue to be based at Watford General Hospital as our redevelopment plans progress.
We will always aim to discharge or admit patients from the ED as early as it is safe to do so. Other urgent and emergency services on site include the Urgent Treatment Centre, Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and the Frailty Unit. Find out more from our April engagement session on emergency care and take a look at this short video on same day emergency care.
A call to NHS111 can often result in faster attention and treatment than in the ED for non-life-threatening conditions. The 111 service can also book a timed urgent appointment with a range of urgent care services including in the emergency department if this is needed. NHS111 can also request an ambulance to be dispatched if needed.
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| Catch up with redevelopment news | Blueprint - You can read past editions of the Blueprint newsletter on our website under ‘newsletters’. Share the news and get your colleagues and friends to subscribe by emailing westherts.redevelopment@nhs.net
A-Z information sheet - This document addresses frequently asked questions and the main themes from our engagement and redevelopment programme. It will be updated regularly and we will provide details of where information has been added or amended. | |
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