Silent Saw' for Barnet Hospital children’s

Meet and greet volunteer Anastasia assisting a visitor at Chase Farm Hospital

Chase Farm Hospital

OBJECTIVE 1 CHASE FARM AND MEET AND GREET Meet and greet volunteers were a crucial element in the successful transition into the new CFH. As new departments and walkways were being opened each week, our existing and newly-recruited volunteers were deployed to different areas of the hospital and provided a navigation lifeline to patients and staff. They now support the concierge team in welcoming and checking in patients to the hospital.

OBJECTIVE 3 BIG THANK YOU TO STAFF The stellar achievements of the staff who provide services at CFH, and those worked to redevelop it, were celebrated at a thank-you event on 17 January with food and fireworks provided by the charity.

The opening of the new Chase Farm Hospital (CFH) was a significant highlight of the year. Not only was it the only new hospital to open in the 70th anniversary year of the NHS but it was also the most digitally advanced hospital in the UK. The charity supported this change with a major increase in its volunteer support for patients at CFH. We also helped the trust celebrate the opening and have helped the new staff settle into their new facility.

Natalie Forrest, chief executive of CFH, told guests: “Staff who work here have done three amazing things – decluttered and moved into this beautiful new hospital; deployed electronic patient records; had a CQC inspection. Most NHS staff might expect do that over the course of a career, not in the space of three months.” The charity was delighted to help the new hospital say thank you to the staff for this magnificent achievement.

OBJECTIVE 4 AIMING FOR EXCELLENT CARE The charity awarded a grant of £409,000 to the trust to enable staff, especially at CFH, to improve quality and efficiency. The grant has helped the development of clinical pathway groups (CPGs) which aim to reduced variations in care so that patients can expect the same high standards of care regardless of which of our hospitals they are treated in.

In particular the grant funded the Point of Care Foundation to involve patients and carers in designing CPGs so that their experiences could inform them and help provide a toolkit to be used staff at each hospital.

NEXT YEAR’S FOCUS We will turn from supporting the opening of the new building to understanding how we can best help patients treated within it. We already have a large volunteer army but this now needs to be supported with a range of new services including the charity’s Support Hub. We will also continue our grant scheme to support staff at CFH. As they understand the new hospital better we’ll be on hand to help fund those items, often small, that make providing care easier.