Values booklet

Our Values Our People Our Culture

Chief Executive’s Introduction I am incredibly proud that as an organisation we are known for delivering safe, high quality care, and for being a friendly, and welcoming organisation for both service users and staff.

The values and behaviours that we display at work are crucial to our success - they define us not only as an organisation but as individuals. Delivering care with compassion is every bit as important as providing technical excellence.

Very often it is the kindness, respect and dignity that is remembered long after the treatment has finished. By working together as part of a team our successes can inspire others to strive to excel.

By maintaining our reputation for professional standards and safe, high quality care, we can instil confidence in the community that we serve.

This booklet has been developed to articulate the values and behaviours that are crucial to our future success. Over 300 staff from a range of different staff groups and teams were involved in developing these values, and they demonstrate the fantastic qualities that you feel best represent a Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust team member.

I would encourage you all to read this booklet, our values will now become a part of how we work every day. We will be ensuring that we recruit people whose values mirror our own, as well as appraising and developing staff with them. Our decisions will be guided by our values in the future.

You are all incredibly important in ensuring the values that you have created are translated from words on a page into practice. We will only be successful as a Trust in embedding our values in our day to day work and activities if each and every one of us adopt them.

By embedding our values across the Trust they will have a positive impact on both patient and staff experience. In leading by example and demonstrating the value in everything we do, we will all play an essential part in realising Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust as an outstanding organisation.

I hope that you feel as committed as I am to see these values become recognisable as a vital part of the Trust’s ethos.

The following pages contain genuine comments from patients, their families and their friends. They are perfect examples of how the values you have identified are reflected in the care that you deliver. It makes me feel proud and privileged to read each and every one of them.

Susan Acott Chief Executive

Delivering high quality care with compassion to every patient “The care that Mr Sriprasad and his team gave my wife is beyond words, he explained the procedure, answering any questions in a most caring and understanding manner, putting both our minds at ease.

We both felt we could not have asked for a better or most caring surgeon.”

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“I have recently attended the Breast Care Unit. What an outstanding department Ms Seetharam and her team have at Darent Valley. I have always found Ms Seetharam and her staff very understanding and caring. How nice the clinic is in one new area.”

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“Sue showed an extra level of care and compassion for me, as a new and first time mum, that I didn’t expect.

Her empathy for me touched my heart and made a huge impact on me during my difficult stay. I am happy to say that my daughter is well and we are both doing brilliantly, but I won’t forget the care that Sue showed to me above all of the other wonderful staff that I came into contact with.”

Demonstrating respect and dignity for patients, their carers’ and our colleagues “From the moment I arrived in the department the whole experience was made significantly more bearable by the compassionate and professional care displayed by all members of the team. Adriana, remained at my side throughout preparation, procedure and recovery, providing me with frequent explanations and sound advice regarding what to expect and how to manage on discharge. Her observation of my condition was constant and caring.

She is a credit to her profession, as were her colleagues who also ensured my experience was lightened by humour and the confidence they inspired.”

 “From the courteous reception staff on the antenatal ward right through to the friendly healthcare assistants and catering staff on the post-natal ward, I have experienced nothing less than what felt like expensive private healthcare.”

in everything we do “I wanted to write to say how very impressed my husband and I were at the care we received at your hospital. From the moment we walked through the door (in some distress) to the moment I was discharged 24 hours later, I was extremely well looked after. Not only did every member of the DVH team I encountered have a great bed-side manner, the speed at which everyone reacted and dealt with my situation was remarkable and reassuring.”

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“My husband had a pace maker fitted and had the best of care from every one of the staff, you have a wonderful team and they must be praised for all the good work.”

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“I can’t speak highly enough of the nurses (both day and night). They were so kind, pleasant and efficient.

They were in and out of the ward frequently – and if you needed them, but they were with another patient or were called away, they promised to come back – which they did. Nothing seemed too much trouble, even though they must have felt very tired towards the end of a long session.”

Sustaining the highest professional standards, showing honesty, openness and integrity in all our actions “My care and treatment was with swift, conscientious, dedicated and thorough staff in this department, inclusive of Doctors, nurses and all who treated me during my short time on A&E majors.”

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“The relatives, partners/friends by the other patients beds were happy smiling, the team of staff absolutely outstanding, whilst going about their duties.”

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“Care, kindness and compassion… Three elements supposedly missing on NHS hospital wards. Well, Mottingham Ward has them in abundance. A Big thank you for helping me on my road to recovery.”

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“Nurse Stephens displayed competency levels far above those expected of someone with her length of service and she surely is a total ambassador for her profession, her hospital and for her wonderful colleagues”

to achieve the best outcomes for our patients “My father is 81 years old and has Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s. He currently lives in a care home.

From the time my father arrived in Accident and Emergency until the time he left he was treated with respect, kindness, thoughtfulness, understanding and patience. He was spoken to clearly and staff made sure he could hear them when they spoke to him and could understand what was being said to him. A great team who had a fantastic understanding of his dreadful illness.”

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“It was very hard for us to watch a man who we so dearly love deteriorate so quickly, especially as he almost in the blink of an eye become so frail and poorly.

We are so grateful to you all for treating Noel with compassion, dignity a sense of humour, dedication and a smile. Noel told us that he felt very safe in your care and it speaks volumes that when the news was broken to him that he was terminally ill and he didn’t have long left, he was very keen to remain in your care until the end.”

“Your staff interacted sensitively and caringly with all visitors to the ward, and acted as true ambassadors both for the hospital and for their professions. They bring great credit and honour to the hospital, to themselves and to their families.”

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In Closing We receive a great number of thank you letters throughout the year and every single one matters.

From the simple cards that say thank you for looking after me to the long letters filled with feeling, compassion and gratitude. Some are sad and some are happy but they all tell their own unique story.

Fundamentally they are all individual and tell about each person’s experience and his/her time remembered in hospital, as a patient, a carer or a visitor. What they have put into words will stay with them a lifetime.

I hope that you found the reflections in this short booklet enlightening. To me they prove that the values we have identified are very much evident throughout the organisation today. They show that every patient matters and how we deliver the medicine is every bit as important as why. We don’t just care for patients, but for their families and friends as well.

Susan Acott, Chief Executive

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust Darent Valley Hospital, Darenth Wood Road, Dartford, Kent DA2 8DA Tel: 01322 428100 Queen Mary’s Hospital Frognal Avenue, Sidcup, Kent DA14 6LT Tel: 0208 3022678 Erith & District Hospital Park Crescent, Erith, Kent DA8 3EE Tel: 0208 3083131 Elm Court (located within Priory Mews) Watling Street, Dartford, Kent DA2 6EH Tel: 01322 278728 e-mail: generalenquiries@dvh.nhs.uk www.dvh.nhs.uk