Issuu

Our year 2021-2022

Contents

Welcome Welcome to Our year magazine, an opportunity to reflect on our achievements and successes over the last year, as we look forward to our plans and ambitions for the year to come.

Welcome

Our second COVID year...

PAHT 2030

New hospital

Our people

Our people - staff health and wellbeing

Our people

Our people - awards

I am pleased to share your achievements through this magazine – please take a look.

Our people - awards

Best wishes

Our people - awards

Lance McCarthy Chief executive

Our people - awards

I am extremely proud of your ongoing commitment to providing high quality care and experiences for the people that we care for, particularly through the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased pressures across our services. I know that this has been a challenging time, but your efforts to deliver care to our patients, and support those who are delivering care, has made a real difference. Despite these challenges, you have also achieved so much, including transformation and improvement projects, receiving prestigious awards in recognition of your amazing work, and delivering high quality care to our patients. I am delighted to have seen our organisation develop significantly in the last year, from launching our PAHT 2030 strategy to introducing our new values: patient at heart, everyday excellence and creative collaboration. Thank you for your support as we work towards our vision of a modern, integrated and outstanding organisation.

24 Our performance

28 Our places 32

Our patients

25 Our performance

29 Our places 33

Our patients

26 Our performance

Our pounds

Our patients

27 Our performance

31 Our pounds

Our pounds Our pounds A year at PAHT... A year at PAHT...

Our second COVID year... We have received

857

compliments from our patients and visitors over the last year - a real reflection of the compassionate care provided at PAHT. We tested more than

19,500

patients for COVID-19 More than

More than

tested negative for COVID-19

tested positive for COVID-19

18,590

970

We discharged or transferred

858

patients following treatment for COVID-19 Sadly,

145 patients have died 3 3

We gave 9,672 COVID-19 vaccinations to our people (first vaccinations, second vaccinations and boosters) We issued more than 250 COVID-19 and operational updates This time last year... On 1 April 2021, COVID restrictions remained in England, although the Government's roadmap for lifting lockdown had begun. Outdoor gatherings of up to six people or two households were permitted, with people encouraged to stay local. Non-essential retail had not yet reopened and no indoor mixing was permitted between different households.

COVID-19 memorial service On 4 May, we held a memorial service for our people. It was an opportunity for us to come together and pause to remember and honour family members, colleagues and friends who sadly lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service included a minute of silence and contributions from our people and representatives of different faith communities.

Omicron COVID-19 variant impact In December 2021, the Omicron COVID-19 variant posed a rapidly increasing risk to our patients and our people. We adapted our guidance accordingly and held regular briefings to keep our people updated. Thank you to everyone for your commitment during this challenging time. 44

PAHT 2030 Our future PAHT

We are on a journey of transformation and improvement that will lead us successfully into the future, enabling us to deliver modern, integrated and outstanding care that keeps our growing and ageing population healthier. Against a backdrop of NHS and system transformation, the relentless pace of scientific, technical and clinical innovation, and our amazing opportunity to build a brand-new hospital, we need a strategy that is big, bold and ambitious. This is PAHT 2030, our organisational roadmap. It is designed to inspire and challenge us, to guide and unite us in working smarter and better to achieve our vision. We launched the strategy at Event in a tent in September 2021. We have already made great progress, thanks to your hard work. But there is much more to do. Now, more than ever, we need to come together as one team, working with our local, regional and national partners, our patients and our communities to make PAHT the centre of excellence we know it can be.

Our progress so far...

PAHT 2030 is well underway, with all divisional leadership teams working up detailed delivery plans to ensure that we achieve our strategic priority milestones and realise the benefits to our organisation. We are continuing to track progress against the PAHT 2030 strategic priority milestones: Transforming our care Our culture Digital health Corporate transformation Our new hospital

The high level emerging dashboard above indicates progress against the 2021 and 2022 milestones to date. Key highlights include work on embedding Same Day Emergency Care and Adult Assessment Unit pathways (transforming our care), improved outcomes in medical administration (corporate transformation), and our new Electronic Health Record (digital health).

PAHT 2030

y y y y y

Transforming our care

The most up to date and expert care designed to meet the needs of the patient, where and when they need it: y Working with system partners to empower patients to take more control over their care and in monitoring their health y Enable our people to work in connected, streamlined ways to deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right place y Drive continuous improvement using real time data to enable PAHT to be a truly learning organisation

Our culture

Fostering and nurturing an inclusive environment that champions diversity and equality, and where our people are engaged, supported and helped to learn and grow: y Foster a healthy workplace where wellbeing is paramount, and staff feel valued, supported and safe to speak up y Create new and enhanced ways of working, with a focus on greater collaboration as well as individual professional development y Offer great career and development opportunities and be a model for diversity and inclusion

Digital health

Harnessing new technology and digital solutions to transform patient care and how we work: y Use innovative technologies to capture, share and learn from the latest patient and clinical data y Create a digitally enabled hospital that will increase efficiency and improve staff experience and patient outcomes y Rollout our new electronic patient record

Modernising our corporate service to support our clinical teams in providing outstanding care: y Modernise our systems and services to support better care delivery and making the trust an amazing place to work and thrive y Collaborate with the integrated care system and integrated care partnership for greater service integration y Build high quality working environments for greater efficiency and cross departmental working

Our new hospital

A world-class hospital for the future, providing first-rate care for our patients and the best place to work for our people: y Improve outcomes for patients and future proof our service delivery through smart, flexible building design y Become more sustainable across everything we do, achieving our target of net zero carbon y Exploit our greenfield location as a place of wellness not illness, for the benefit of staff, patients and local biodiversity

PAHT 2030

Corporate transformation

What PAHT 2030 means for you...

y You will see a significantly increasing emphasis on digital care and information with many services, clinical and non-clinical, transforming as a result y You will experience integration and partnership working with our local and regional partners on a scale not seen before y You will see the movement of services from their existing hospital location in to other settings, including care at home and virtual appointments and treatments y You will see far less patients stay in hospital overnight with an emphasis on day case services y You will be working as part of an organisation which will be transforming and changing, with many new ways of working and thinking y You will be working in an environment that allows you to be the best you can be and you will be supported and developed appropriately y You will be part of an ambitious and exciting programme of work which will see us become a modern, integrated and outstanding organisation

Next steps

In March 2022, we introduced PM3, an integrated project management tool to support oversight, governance, and data-led decision making. It also provides a broad range of project management functionality across our services. We are using this to track progress with the PAHT 2030 milestones and will keep all of our people updated.

New hospital All in a year’s work

As we approach the end of another busy and challenging year, we can reflect on a huge amount of progress towards building our new hospital. We began 2021 with a flurry of public engagement activities, discussing ideas and hearing feedback on the design concepts for the public-facing spaces of our new hospital. By the middle of the year we had finalised a number of hugely important projects and documents, in preparation for us submitting our Outline Business Case to Government in 2022.

Success lies in preparation

To give you a flavour of the work involved in scoping our new hospital, we’ve produced the following: Design brief Demand and capacity analysis New models of care Schedules of accommodation 1:200 drawings Procurement strategy Facilities management strategy Digital strategy Modern methods of construction strategy Net zero carbon strategy Communications and engagement strategy

Underpinning the drafting of these documents has been hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of listening, discussing, conceptualising, planning and designing our new hospital. We’ve engaged with our people, our patients, our partners and the public. All of this despite the pressures of COVID-19, and day jobs that have been more stretched than ever before.

In gear, ready to go

We have got everything in place now, and we are ready for the green light to move forward. y y y y y y

Our clinical model is agreed with system partners Our new ways of working are already underway Our 1:200 drawings are signed off by our clinicians Our PPA is agreed with local authority Our outline business case (OBC) is 60% drafted Our PAHT 2030 strategy is now live, with the new hospital critical in delivering transformation

Despite this progress you may still be wondering if our plans had gone quiet of late. The buzz of activity and engagement in the first half of this year has been met by a noticeably slower second half.

New hospital

y y y y y y y y y y y

The reason for that is simple. We are part of a national New Hospital Programme (one of the eight ‘pathfinder’ hospitals) and all trusts at our stage of development have been asked to pause our work whilst the national team develop a Programme Business Case for the entire New Hospital Programme.

What are we waiting for?

The Programme Business Case is looking at ways to ‘join up’ common aspects of the new hospitals such as room design, procurement of contractors, and making the most of modern methods of construction. This is so that the New Hospital Programme can achieve greater value for the taxpayer, and the new hospitals can be built faster, better and more efficiently. Whilst we wait for this to be progressed and approved, we are also in the final stages of completing the land purchase. Then we can move on to finalising our outline business case and progressing enabling works and planning preparation.

New hospital website

Patients will be able to have their say through polls, surveys and direct feedback links. If you place a vote in our latest poll for example, the results are updated in real time on the site, so you see how your vote has made a difference.The website features photos of PAHT people, taken from recent photoshoots on site. We will be using these wonderful images across our new hospital communications. We welcome any feedback and ideas for how to make this site work for patients. Please share it amongst your networks, friends and families so we can reach as many people as possible. Website: www.newpah.org Email: paht.newhospital@nhs.net

New hospital

We have been busy behind the scenes building a new website for the new hospital, with the focus on engagement rather than just the sharing of information. This site will grow as the project progresses, with more to communicate and more ways to for you to feed your ideas in.

Our people New values introduced

At Event in a tent 2021, we introduced our new values: y Patient at heart: Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts y Everyday excellence: Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both y Creative collaboration: Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care The most valuable part of our values and what they mean to us all is that they reflect your thoughts, your thinking and what is important to you. Thank you to everyone who shared your feedback to shape our new values.

This is us - values and behaviours framework to support our new values

Our values support us all in the way we work together and care for our patients and each other. We each have a responsibility to live our values and put them at the centre of how we work with each other and care for our patients.

This is us workshops for managers and supervisors

Our This is us workshops are open for all managers and supervisors to attend. The workshops help our people to understand the new This is us booklet, a guide to our values and behaviours framework, enhance reflection and feedback skills, focus on strength and growth areas and to understand how the This is us booklet can impact positively on team cultures.

Our new Extranet, AlexNet

We introduced AlexNet, our new Extranet, in December. Features include:  Brand new workspaces for all teams and services  Event and noticeboard listings  Easy to locate policies and procedures

Our people

In line with our new values, we introduced the This is us values and behaviours framework. This is us sets out our values and our behaviours and the commitment from each of us to making these the way we all work – all roles, all levels of responsibility.

 Your most frequently used pages populated on the home page  Available from your phone or tablet, as well as your laptop and desktop PC Thank you to everyone for your fantastic feedback. We have now seen more than 361,000 visits to AlexNet.

Welcoming our new chair

Hattie Llewelyn-Davies joined as our new chair in September. She has extensive experience as chairs of NHS organisations, having chaired Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust (HPFT) for many years, before spending the last seven years as chair at Buckinghamshire Health NHS Trust. Before joining the NHS, Hattie had a number of chief executive and senior management roles in the housing and homelessness sector; and was awarded an OBE for services to homeless people in 2004. Hattie was also recognised by the Sunday Times as Non-Executive for the Public and Not for Profit Sector in 2019 and is a trustee on the board of NHS Providers.

New non-executive directors appointed

Colin is currently chief financial officer (CFO) with NHS Supply Chain, a role he has held since December 2019 (he was additionally acting chief executive officer (CEO) from November 2020 to August 2021). Before this, he worked at NHS Professionals, where he held the position of CFO and then interim CEO. Liz has a wealth of experience from the transportation sector, particularly in the capital delivery of major rail projects such as Crossrail and High Speed 2, and major industry reviews. Additionally, in February, Darshana Bawa (pictured right) became an associate non-executive director - she was previously a NExT non-executive director.

Welcome to our new deputy medical directors

Dr Fiona Hikmet (pictured, far right) was appointed to the role of deputy medical director (professional standards) and Dr Jon Keene (pictured, right) was appointed to the role of deputy medical director (clinical strategy). They are supporting us as we all work to achieve our goals of delivering the highest quality care to our patients, creating a culture where we can all do our best work and become a truly learning organisation.

Our people

We appointed two new nonexecutive directors to our board in February. Colin McCready (pictured right) joined the hospital as a nonexecutive director, and Liz Baker (pictured, far right) as an associate non-executive director.

Back to better - Here to hear

As part of the Back to better campaign, we focused on hearing a wide range of feedback, with a survey encouraging people to tell us what would improve their experience of working at PAHT (available online and via paper copies). This informed our continued improvements in response to the Staff Survey results.

We held a range of events, webinars and shared information covering four themes to support our people, as part of our focus on the future and getting back to better. This included: y y y y

Health and wellbeing Compassionate leadership Civility, values and behaviours Operational

The sessions received great feedback - thank you.

Opening of the Alex Lounge

Our fantastic new Alex Lounge is now open for our people. We celebrated the official opening of the lounge on 17 March, with Lance McCarthy, chief executive, and Hattie Llewelyn-Davies, chair. The Alex Lounge, next to the Alexandra restaurant (location A21) at The Princess Alexandra Hospital, is a hub for you to meet colleagues and relax together, to take some time out for yourself, or to join one of the health and wellbeing sessions. Open to all and free of charge, the new space is a bright, modern area and has been funded in response to your feedback about how important a new staff area is to support your health and wellbeing.

Our people - health and wellbeing

Back to better health and wellbeing programme

Supporting the national COVID-19 vaccination programme

We continued to support the national COVID-19 vaccination programme throughout the year, giving 9,672 COVID-19 vaccinations to our people (first doses, second doses and boosters). We also shared key messaging about vaccination, including at a series of InTouch briefings with a panel of experts.

Vaccinating our people against flu

Establishing the health and wellbeing steering group

One of the key priorities during 2021-22 was to continue to embed a sustainable health and wellbeing offer for our people, in response to the impact of COVID-19 and the ongoing challenges. In May 2021, we established a health and wellbeing steering group to coordinate these activities at PAHT. During this time, the group have introduced many initiatives including a menopause policy, musculoskeletal (MSK) referral pathway and support App, and now have health and wellbeing champions in place across the organisation.

Introducing the Here for you service

As part of the national support offer for mental health, a psychological health support service, Here for you, was introduced within the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System (ICS). This is a mental health and wellbeing service available to any health and social care worker in the area who needs psychological support, including with the direct or indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Established in April 2021, the team have facilitated one-to-one referrals and onward support with primary care; group reflective sessions; and webinars on a wide range of topics. This service has been well received by all of you.

Mental health first aiders

As part of our commitment to support our people, we have continued to invest in training for mental health first aiders and now have a multi-disciplinary team that are able to support and signpost our people to services to meet their needs.

Absence reporting line

A five day per week absence reporting service was reestablished within the staff health and wellbeing team in December 2021, in response the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The team provided expert guidance to our people and their line managers - thank you.

Our people - health and wellbeing

The winter flu campaign saw 53% of our people vaccinated (61% for those that have patient contact). This is a decrease on 2020/21 figures, however it is consistent with uptake for NHS staff nationally.

Project Wingman aircrew return to provide first class service for our people The Project Wingman team returned to support us during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an opportunity for our people to enjoy a first class refreshment service and to unwind before, during and after shifts.

Event in a tent

In September, we held our three-day annual event, Event in a tent, to recognise and develop our people. We hosted a range of sessions to help our people develop; celebrate and have fun with colleagues, learn more about PAHT and our plans for the future.

Our Amazing People Awards

During Event in a tent, we held the Our Amazing People Awards ceremony to celebrate the dedication and commitment of our people who make a difference every day. The winners received an award in recognition of their hard work and achievements throughout the year.

Long Service Awards

We held our annual Long Service Awards during Event in a tent to celebrate, recognise and say a special thank you to our colleagues who have worked at PAHT for 20 and 25 years.

As we say goodbye to our Event in a tent annual event, this year we will be saying hello and welcome to our brand new engagement event for all of you - This is Us Week 2022. This is Us Week 2022 will:  Take place over six days: 27 June to 2 July (Monday to Saturday) and will be the last week of June every year from now  Be open to all – make sure you don’t miss out  Have sessions at Princess Alexandra; Herts and Essex and St Margaret’s Hospitals and Kao Park  Offer an exciting mix of sessions, activities, learning and fun  Celebrate our new annual This is Us Awards and our Long Service Awards  and so much more… Look out for more information coming soon.

Our people

This is us Week 2022

Enhancing our BAME network

Our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) network are committed to supporting our people across PAHT and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. The name of the network has now changed to REACH, which stands for Race Equality and Cultural Heritage Network, to help our people understand and relate to the aims of the network. To enhance the network further, Andrea Philip, associate director of operations for the family and women’s services, has been appointed as chair of the network.

Supporting our apprentices

Over the last year, we have supported 19 people to complete their apprenticeship and currently have 79 people undertaking an apprenticeship. We support apprenticeships at all levels, ranging from levels 2-7. This is the equivalent of GCSE level up to a master's degree level. Over 85% of our apprentices remain working at PAHT - a fantastic achievement.

Our patients said...

"It was such a relief to know that he was in good, kind and caring hands, with people listening to him. "This was even more important whilst visiting restrictions were in place. Thank you so much for your kindness."

"I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and care. You are a credit to the ward and your professions."

The team were all super. Truly caring and they made my time a lot easier."

Our people

"Thank you so much for making my husband's stay in hospital as good as you could possibly do.

Additional Freedom to Speak Up Guardians appointed

Our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are here to support all of our people with raising concerns in a protected, confidential and safe environment. We now have six Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, with lead guardian Lindsay Hanmore, Natalie Gray, Dr Jeff Phillips and Dr Jane Snook joining Lisa Thurley and Lorraine Nixon.

Clinical research trials success First global participant recruited into the COVID-19 antibody self-test study Our research, development and innovation team successfully recruited the first global participant for the Pan Bio COVID-19 antibody self-test study. This is a great achievement and demonstrates the success of the processes used in setting up clinical trials.

Participating in the COVID-19 nurse research trial

We met our target to recruit 50 COVID-19 ward nurses and 60 patients with COVID-19 by October 2021. The team collected a very impressive 100% of the outcome data from participants.

"My experience when I was admitted was excellent and I could not fault the staff for their hard “A polite, kind and compassionate team - feels like a work and dedication. very safe environment.”

"The care and attention I received was second to none, thank you so very much."

Our people

Our research, development and innovation team and COVID-19 nursing teams have supported a national COVID-19 nurse research trial. The trial focused on evaluating the impact of quality of care and experiences for our patients with COVID-19.

Our amazing people have been recognised with a variety of accolades in the last year – congratulations to all. They include: Surgeon awarded MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List Mr Ashraf Patel, associate specialist in breast surgery, was awarded an MBE in June.

At the Breast Unit, with the support of his patients, their families and friends and partner charities, he has helped to raise more than £4.5million for The Princess Alexandra Hospital Charity. This has funded fantastic improvements including breast cancer clinical trials, specialist equipment and health and wellbeing programmes, benefiting patients with breast cancer.

Gastroenterology inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) service and pharmacy team shortlisted for accolade The gastroenterology inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) service and pharmacy team at PAHT were shortlisted for a prestigious accolade in recognition of their partnership working to improve the experience of patients.

Their inflammatory bowel disease service project was shortlisted for the Improving Safety in Medicines Management Award at the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Awards. The teams focused on improving the care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who are taking immunosuppressant and biologic medication.

Communications team win national award

The communications team won a national award, and were shortlisted for two leading industry awards. The team received the accolade of Best Event at the Institute of Internal Communication Awards. They were recognised for their work on Events not in a tent 2020, our spectacular staff recognition and health and wellbeing events programme. Additionally, they were a finalist in the category of Best COVID response for their strong focus on engagement with people across PAHT during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our people - awards

Mr Patel was recognised for services to funding and research for breast cancer in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

They were also shortlisted in the category of ‘Best Event’ for Events not in a tent at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Awards 2021.

Trainee biomedical scientist wins prestigious award Donna Morris, trainee biomedical scientist, won a prestigious national award in May 2021.

Biomedical scientist highly commended at national awards Cherie Beckett, biomedical scientist, was highly commended at the finals of a prominent national awards ceremony. Cherie, who works in the microbiology department, was highly commended in the ‘Rising Star’ category of the 2020 Healthcare Science Awards. The awards are held to recognise and celebrate the contribution of healthcare scientists to the NHS and across the broader healthcare system. The ceremony was held online in May 2021, after being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was recognised in her field for her role in lecturing and mentoring student biomedical scientists and being an advocate of her profession among industry networks and on social media.

Virtual visiting service for patients and their loved ones win technology award

The virtual visiting service for patients and their loved ones at PAHT won a national award in August. The virtual visiting team, which includes teams across the organisation working in partnership, were awarded the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) Unexpected Innovation Award 2021. The Unexpected Innovation Award celebrates the best of experimental design, creative thinking and radical innovation in healthcare from both individuals and teams. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, patients have been able to have a precious video call with their loved ones who are staying in hospital while visiting to the hospital was restricted to protect patients, visitors, and our people.

Our people - awards

Donna was one of three finalists to be shortlisted for the Advancing Healthcare Awards in the category of the NHS Employers Award for Outstanding Achievement by an allied health professional, healthcare science apprentice, support worker or technician. She received her nomination for the support she gave the pathology team during the first wave of COVID-19.

Dedicated volunteer shortlisted for national award Alison Lawrence, a dedicated volunteer, was shortlisted for a national award in recognition of her contribution to connecting patients with their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alison, a former volunteer who is now voluntary services deputy manager, was a finalist for ‘Volunteer Leader of the Year’ at the Helpforce Champions Awards 2021 in October. She was shortlisted in this category for being an outstanding role model, reflecting the care our volunteers provide for our patients, their families and our people.

Surgeon wins international prize for pioneering research

Mr Teoh won the Presidential Prize at the European Foot and Ankle Society (EFAS) Conference, held from 21-23 October, in Lyon, France. EFAS represents 27 national societies and around 3500 surgeons in Europe. He was recognised for his research titled: ‘Is it safe to weightbear a tibia-pro-fibula construct early when used in treating unstable osteoporotic bimalleolar ankle fractures: a biomechanical study?’ This research helps to establish whether it is feasible for patients with osteoporotic unstable ankle fractures (resulting from osteoporosis, a condition which causes bones to become weak and brittle) to start early weightbearing following surgery, to improve recovery.

Hospital trauma and orthopaedics department recognised for training excellence

The trauma and orthopaedics department was recognised for its training excellence by the East of England Trauma and Orthopaedic Training Programme, Health Education England in June. There have been a range of plaudits for the team, following a longstanding tradition of outstanding achievement. The department was awarded second place in the East of England Trauma and Orthopaedic Training Programme’s Trainee Led Training Hospital of the Year Awards for the third year running. Additionally, Mr Satish Kutty (pictured), consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, received the Regional Trainer of the Year accolade. This follows the achievement of being awarded the Austrian-Swiss-German (ASG)

Our people - awards

Mr Kar Teoh, consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, won an international prize for his pioneering research into the treatment of ankle fractures.

Fellowship for 2020. This is a prestigious award from the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) which selects one surgeon every two years for this fellowship. The latest successes for the department follow Mr Jehangir Mahaluxmivala, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, being named the Trainer of the Year 2020 by the Royal London Rotation for Trauma and Orthopaedics.

Teams nominated for local community awards

The estates and facilities and chaplaincy team were shortlisted for Heart 4 Harlow Community Awards.

The estates and facilities team were nominated for their ongoing hard work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide patients and staff with nutritious meals, maintain high standards of cleanliness, manage specialist medical equipment, transport patients around the hospital and undertake important and regular estates maintenance. The chaplaincy team were nominated for their ongoing commitment to providing spiritual care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, working collaboratively with clinical colleagues to develop their services, and their involvement with plans to create a new tranquil sanctuary area.

Midwife receives prestigious award

Dedicated midwife Kirstie Savege received a prestigious Cavell Star Award from the Cavell Nurses’ Trust in December. Midwives, nurses, and healthcare assistants can be nominated for a Cavell Star Award if they show dedication to their role and give exceptional support to their patients, patients’ families, and colleagues. Kirstie was nominated for the Cavell Star Award for her hard work and commitment and for continuously going above and beyond for the people that she cares for.

Our people - awards

The annual community awards focus on a culture of appreciation and organisations who make a real difference to everyday life in Harlow.

Our patients

Introducing yellow wristbands for patients at risk of falls

We introduced the use of yellow wristbands, blankets and socks in the emergency department. They show that the patient has been identified to be a falls risk in the emergency department and needs to be given special precautions and utmost attention to prevent a fall and avoid fall related injuries.

The Older Person’s Assessment Unit takes on winter deconditioning games NHS England began a deconditioning games initiative to reduce deconditioning and functional loss for people in hospital. Our older people's unit team rose to the challenge and have been awarded four bronze medals and three silver medals for the making a difference by testing something new, supporting people to keep moving and using data to inform improvements categories.

We have introduced ChemoCare, an electronic chemotherapy prescribing system that allows clinicians to prescribe, prepare, administer and schedule appointments for haematology oncology patients.

ChemoCare has replaced hand written paper prescriptions to ensure safe administration of chemotherapy medication. The system also helps to ensure that our patients receive the correct medication and the correct dose in a timely manner, records treatment history and offers clinical decisionmaking support.

Our patients

Chemotherapy electronic prescribing system supports patient care

Multi-agency discharge event (MADE) In November, we worked together with our partners across the local healthcare system to enhance patient flow and improve patient experience.

We saw fantastic progress across key areas including emergency department (ED) performance, patients being streamed to the most appropriate location for their needs from ED, and ambulance handover times. We are continuing to work to develop and improve on this progress with our system partners going forward.

Patient Panel receives Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS)

Maternity team rated for improved support and information sharing in Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey Our maternity team were rated for improvements to support and information sharing in a patient survey.

The results of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 2021 Maternity Survey showed improvements in key aspects of these two areas. In particular, this was to whether the respondents would have liked to have seen or spoken to a midwife more/less/the right amount) (the rating improved from 4.5 in 2019 to 6.6 this year) and whether they were given information about physical recovery after birth (the rating improved from 7.1 in 2019 to 7.5 in 2021) and was better than most trusts. The feedback also improved and was rated as somewhat better than most trusts for midwives providing relevant information during pregnancy about feeding the baby (the rating improved from 7.4 in 2019 to 7.7 in 2021).

Our patients

The Patient Panel were honoured to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. They were awarded the accolade in recognition of their dedication to representing the voice of patients at PAHT. While the announcement was made in June 2020, the ceremony took place on 20 July 2021 (pictured - relevant COVID-19 guidance was followed), due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel were presented with their award at Down Hall Country House Hotel, Bishop's Stortford. Lance McCarthy, chief executive, thanked the Patient Panel for their support as well as all volunteers who support the hospital, before handing over to Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Essex, who gave each member of the Patient Panel a Queens Award (QAVS) medal.

Virtual visiting service connects patients with their loved ones The service, which was established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, enables patients to continue to be able to have a precious video call with their loved ones while staying in hospital. This has been particularly valuable while visiting to the hospital was restricted. Thank you to everyone involved.

Virtual fracture clinic

Patients who have been diagnosed with a fracture are now reviewed at our virtual fracture clinic. The virtual clinic has improved our patients' experience, so that they are not required to attend the hospital for multiple face-to-face assessments and can be reviewed in a timely manner.

Patient initiated follow up (PIFU)

y Improved patient experience - patients only attend when they need to, reducing unnecessary journeys and time wasted y Reduction in did not attend (DNA) rates - this releases these appointments for patients who do want/need to be seen y Release of capacity – allows clinicians to review new patients y Clinical time used more effectively

Non-invasive ventilation

To bring mortality rates to where we would expect them to be, we began providing noninvasive ventilation to patients, based on Locke Ward. The ventilation offers support through the patient’s mouth via a tight-fitting mask. This improves patient safety and experience, as patients do not need to have tubes inserted into the airway or undergo other invasive techniques. Starting a patient on non-invasive ventilation quickly can improve patient outcomes, reduce length or stay in hospital and reduce the need for admission to critical care.

Our patients

We have rolled out patient initiated follow up (PIFU) across 12 of our specialities. The initiative puts patients in control of making an appointment with their consultant or healthcare team if they have any concerns related to their specific condition or symptoms, within a specified timeframe. The key benefits of PIFU include:

Our performance Healthcare group leadership transformation

This year, we refreshed our leadership team and divisions to strengthen our clinical leadership and governance, develop a robust accountability framework, provide clarity on role purpose, remit and expectations and to realign services to support patient outcomes and pathways. Thank you to all who contributed with suggestions and ways to strengthen the changes. The latest divisional structure booklet can be viewed on AlexNet.

Seven-days-a-week internal rota for gastrointestinal bleed

Introducing a new clinical communications tool - Alertive

To enhance our ways of working and communication with each other, we introduced a clinical and corporate communications tool called Alertive to replace all nonemergency bleeps. If you have not already, you can download the Alertive App via your smartphone App store. Once downloaded, please enter the ID code princessalex.

Connecting to the shared care record system Our new-shared care record, Cerner HIE, has replaced the My Care Record within Cosmic.

The shared care record connects information from GP practices, community records, and out of hours services in Hertfordshire and West Essex. Additionally, the shared care record includes information from patient records if they have been cared for at a London acute hospital.

New electronic portering request system – Winaim

Our new electronic system for portering requests, called Winaim, efficiently logs all requests and allocates jobs to our estates team. The system helps to improve experiences for our people and patients.

Our performance

We introduced an internal rota for endoscopy (telescope tests) for gastrointestinal bleeding (upper gut bleeding). This is the first time that we have been able to provide this muchneeded service seven days a week, for the benefit of patients and patient safety.

Back to better: Urgent and emergency care improvement programme

We introduced the Back to better: Urgent and emergency care improvement programme, where we focused on exploring new and adapted ways of working to improve the service we provide to our patients. This was in response to the areas for improvement identified in the CQC report and subsequent rating. The programme and action plan focused on enhancing patient flow through urgent care and the emergency department. The programme involved five workstreams: improving redirection, streaming and entry to the emergency department (ED); optimising flow through ED; use of assessment areas, Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC), and short stay; supporting the daily rhythm and flow; and delivering Care Quality Commission (CQC) quality and safety recommendations.

Our CQC results

We are extremely proud of you all for your continued hard work and commitment to patient care, despite the enormous demand and pressures that we face. Our CQC colleagues recognised your dedication to our patients and each other, and noted that you are committed to meeting our patients’ needs and to ensure that our people felt supported and valued by each other; this was reflected in the inspectors’ rating of Caring as Good. We know that we need to continue to improve all of our services, whilst on our ongoing journey of improvement, however, we have the dedication of our people to help make these changes a reality. Our urgent and emergency, medicine and maternity teams continue to strive to provide excellent care for our patients. All three teams have already put in place improvements following the CQC inspection and report, in addition to managing the significant increase in demand from our local population for those services. Thank you for putting our patients at the heart of everything that you do. Let’s continue to ensure that we enhance and improve experiences for our patients and people, together.

Our performance

Thank you to everyone for your commitment to continuing to improve our patients’ experiences at our hospital.

Programme management office Our programme management office (PMO) supports our teams with transformation and improvement projects to benefit our patients and people.

In March, the team introduced PM3, an integrated project management tool that will support oversight, governance, and data-led decision making. PM3 facilitates the tracking and monitoring of multiple programmes and projects and the standardisation of documentation and processes. It is a tool that will help us to do the right thing, at the right time and in the right way.

Our domestic and housekeeping services ensure our that our hospital, offices and other areas are clean, hygienic and safe, so that we can provide high quality care and experiences for our patients. The team are committed to continuously improving their services, and have worked closely with the quality first team on a number of improvements, including: Domestics team • Cleaning services are now provided on every ward, 11 hours per day, seven days a week. There is also 24-hour cover within our emergency department. Equipment • The team have invested in new and modern equipment to enable increased productivity. A comprehensive training programme has taken place to demonstrate how to use the new equipment. Housekeeping • Housekeeping services are now provided on every ward, 11 hours per day, seven days a week. • Training and development plans have been introduced for the new housekeepers' role.

Our performance

Our domestic services

Learning from deaths

We are committed to making a difference and improving patient outcomes. Teams across PAHT have introduced several initiatives to help our people learn from deaths more effectively, including: • Introducing a new software solution for our medical examiners, patient safety and quality team and other key teams to support with effective learning from deaths • Continuing to develop an automated and interactive mortality dashboard that is able to look into key areas of interest • Regular and structured mortality and morbidity review meetings

Pathology programme – collaborative working

Together with pathology colleagues at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust; East and North Hertfordshire CCG; Herts Valleys CCG; West Essex CCG and West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust we are part of a national programme to develop networked pathology services initiated by NHS England/Improvement. The programme requires us to consider the options for the development of a shared pathology service to support local hospitals, community services and GPs and the patients that we care for. The programme has experienced some unavoidable delays and during this period, our pathology teams and the bidders have also been under unprecedented pressure from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a single bidder who is preparing a best and final offer and it is anticipated that a new contract will be signed in August 2022.

Merging procurement – one team

July 2021 saw the completion of a very busy period for our procurement team as they prepared for their transfer to a new enhanced and shared procurement service. The new integrated team, hosted by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust provides procurement services across the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System (ICS). The new team has named contacts who manage all procurement tasks and queries for PAHT.

Our performance

• Appointment of a lead medical examiner to enhance our governance and regulatory systems and to closely review the deaths of patients that are not under review or inquest by the coroner

Our places Ophthalmology service moves to new diagnostic unit

With the growing demand for our ophthalmology service, we have moved to a new diagnostic unit to enhance experiences for our patients and to help ensure that they are reviewed and treated efficiently by the most appropriate clinician for their condition.

New hospital wall graphics We installed a series of wall art graphics in the outpatients' corridor and inside the Alexandra restaurant to help to demonstrate the PAHT 2030 vision. The graphics are a great reminder for our people and patients that we are building a new hospital and have a clear vision in place to care for our local community and for future generations to come.

Green zone available for our people

The green zone is just one of the ways in which we have improved our hospital. The area includes ten electric vehicle charging points and refurbished changing facilities for cyclists and runners. In addition, we have installed 24 secure cycle storage boxes, improved lighting and CCTV cameras to enhance security and have created an outdoor garden space with curved benching for our people to enjoy the outdoor space.

Our estates and facilities team have worked extremely hard to upgrade and refurbish many of our ward areas. The refurbished wards are light and bright, with modern facilities to help support the health, wellbeing, and experience for our patients and people. The upgrade works include: y Enhanced patient safety features to prevent falls and enhance infection control y New divided bays to promote privacy and dignity and reduce infection control risk y Large multi-disciplinary team room y Full IT equipment upgrade with new desktop and laptop computers y Air conditioning y Improved staff changing facilities

Our places

Ward refurbishment programme

Our Learning and Education Centre

Our fantastic Learning and Education Centre has recently been unveiled for our people. Open to all, the bright and modern facility consists of a new library, lecture theatre, training rooms, a clinical skills room, a resuscitation training room, a simulation suite, IT training room, and a manual handling training room. The centre is adjacent to The Princess Alexandra Hospital main entrance.

Our places

Thank you to everyone involved.

Our pounds

We have continued to manage our pounds effectively by achieving our annual financial plan and delivering a surplus - each of you has played a role in helping us to achieve this objective. In 2020/21, our financial performance includes receiving: • c.£16m of income to support with the increased demands of the COVID-19 pandemic • c.£27m to support our capital programme, which has helped to improve the infrastructure at the hospital, purchase new equipment to ensure that we are delivering the best possible care to our patients, digital transformation for both our people and patients, to modernise and improve the way that we work and how we deliver our patient care The funds have also supported us to create our new Alex Lounge, a space for you and colleagues to relax together, to take some time out for yourself, or to join one of the health and wellbeing sessions planned for the dedicated lounge.

"I would like to say a huge thank you to the whole team that cared for my daughter. They went above and beyond. "They are clearly dedicated and passionate about patient care. All the individuals are a real credit to the hospital and NHS."

Our pounds

In addition, the funds also facilitated our new Learning and Education Centre, to ensure that our people have a high quality and modern facility to undertake training and development activities to enhance the quality of care and experiences for our patients.

Our charity

Our charity supports patients, our people and visitors across all of our hospital sites. The charity helps us to enhance patient care, purchase special equipment, improve facilities and invest in vital research that supports our patients now and into the future.

New head of charity appointed

This year, we were pleased to welcome Gary Taylor, our new head of charity (pictured below).

Gary said: “I have really enjoyed my time at PAHT so far. Everyone has been very welcoming and supportive. “The most rewarding part of my role is meeting our donors, who go above and beyond to support their local charity. It’s very humbling and reminds me the value of the work I do every day. “I’m very optimistic about where the charity could be in the future and look forward to continuing our fundraising efforts and raising the profile of the charity.” Take a look at some of the support we have received over the last year:

Adventurous father treks 24km to raise money for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit An adventurous father undertook a gruelling trek in 65mph icy winds to raise money for our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Sam Snelling, 39, from North Weald, challenged himself this January by undertaking the Winter Fan Dance a 24-kilometre trek over the Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons, all while carrying a 35lb rucksack. Sam completed the difficult trek in six hours and 27 minutes, raising over £1,250 for our NICU. Sam chose to raise money for the NICU as thanks for the care that his son received, as once he was born he was immediately rushed to the NICU and put in an incubator where he received around the clock care for six days.

Our pounds - charity

As the head of charity, Gary is responsible for directing and delivering the fundraising strategy. Gary is also a member of the Charitable Funds Committee, to help shape the role of the charity to support the hospital, our patients and people.

Generous parents of twins raise money for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit A generous couple from Harlow have gone above and beyond to fundraise for our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In thanks for the care of their twins, Sam and Lizzie, 32 and 31, organised a golfing event which gave people the chance to play at the acclaimed West Essex Golf Club, raising over £8,000 for The Princess Alexandra Hospital Charity.

Activities during the fundraiser included a full round of golf, a raffle to win exciting prizes, a ‘sign the tenner’ game, and a ‘beat the pro’ game where people could compete against a professional golfer. All prizes were kindly donated by friends, family, and local businesses. Sam and Lizzie chose to raise money for the NICU as a way to thank our hospital and people for the care that they received when their twins were diagnosed with twin to twin transfusion, a rare condition that occurs during a twin pregnancy when blood moves from one to the other while in the womb. They were under the care of the NICU staff who they saw every two days until Lizzie gave birth to twins Olivia and Sophia.

Generous pub team raise funds for local hospital charity

The dedicated team at the Willow pub in Harlow organised a day of fun to support our charity, raising over £800.

Events during the day included face painting, a barbecue, and a raffle to win exciting prizes, including a hamper and a Tottenham Hotspur football shirt.

Young baker makes over 500 gingerbread people to raise funds for hospital A young baker made gingerbread people to raise money for our Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Jessica Putt, 10, from Church Langley in Harlow, baked over 500 gingerbread people and raised more than £500 for the ICU as a thank you for the care that her granddad received. Jessica’s granddad, Chris Putt, 76, was admitted to the ICU in September 2020 when he was taken ill with COVID-19. He spent 131 days in the ICU and was discharged from hospital to continue his recovery in

Our pounds

The Rock’In Rainbow event, held on the 25 September, featured a mixture of live pop, rock, and indie music from local bands Moonshine Coyote, Bombshell, and Afterlife.

February 2021. Jessica’s original goal was to raise £131, £1 for each day her granddad was in the ICU, but thanks to the generosity of her neighbours, friends, and family, she passed that goal in the first weekend alone.

Heroes orchestral concert

On Saturday 27 November, The Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra played a concert titled Heroes at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden. The concert was a night to remember NHS heroes, and to fundraise for The Princess Alexandra Hospital Charity, where they raised £715. Heroes featured a mixture of new and more familiar pieces including the world debut of a new commission, Der Trommel, and a symphonic arrangement of David Bowie’s 1977 album ‘Heroes’. Thank you to everyone involved.

"From the A&E reception through to the nurses, senior radiographer, doctors and especially catering, every one of our needs was met.

"Thank you for the great care the older persons assessment and liaison service (OPAL) unit gave my father. You all do a very difficult job, so I wanted you to know how much this is appreciated."

Our pounds

"It was my first time at A&E and I already have my follow up scan - a good experience of care."

A year at PAHT... We saw

122,185

attendances to our emergency department (ED). By ambulance

21,225

By walk in

100,095 By GP referral

6,595 There were

524,090

outpatient appointments

105,156

were virtual appointments

3,908

babies were born 34

We saw

5,560

patients at our Adult Assessment Unit (AAU) We saw

16,018

patients at our Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) Unit

7,810

inpatients

8,208

outpatients

We supplied a box of

packed red blood cells and

plasma to each airbase for the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance every day. The teams administered blood products to

patients 35

Thank you to all of our #PAHTPeople for the difference you continue to make...

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, Hamstel Road, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1QX 01279 44 44 55

NHSHarlow @NHSHarlow @PrincessAlexandraNHS The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 36