OVERVIEW OF SOUTH WARWICKSHIRE
GENERAL HOSPITALS NHS TRUST

 

Welcome to South Warwickshire General NHS Trust

South Warwickshire General NHS Trust incorporates Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon Hospitals.

We serve a community of approximately 270,000 in South Warwickshire and the surrounding areas. The largest population centres are the towns of Kenilworth, Royal Leamington Spa, Southam, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick.

Also Providing a wide range of day case, inpatient, outpatient and maternity services including Accident & emergency facilities, which are based at Warwick Hospital.

In line with Government initiatives the main priorities for the Trust in 2000/01 are:

  • the achievement of waiting list and waiting times targets.
  • the management of emergency admissions and the development of Critical Care services.
  • the achievement of in year income and expenditure balance, maintenance of the working capital position and movement towards recurrent income and expenditure balance.
  • completion of Phase II of the medical unit and the continuing modernisation of Accident and Emergency services.
  • the continued development of the clinical governance, quality and controls assurance agendas.

    TRUST DEVELOPMENTS

  • Coped with a 27% rise in inpatient and day case activity in the five years from 1994-95 to 1999-2000. It is also coping with an increase in inpatient and day case activity above the forecasted rise of nearly 3% this year.
  • Endeavouring to meet its waiting list targets for the current year. The position has markedly improved through implementation of an action plan addressing specific administrative procedures and practices that significantly impact on waiting lists.
  • Complaints fell by 68% in the five years from 1994-95 to 1999-2000 despite the 27% increase in inpatient and day cases.

    Recruitment

  • New consultant appointments have been made to ensure that service provision is maintained.
  • Warwickshire had the best record for nurse recruitment of any county in England in 1999-2000 according to a report by the general union GMB. It took 4.3 weeks on average to fill a vacancy in Warwickshire compared to over 40 weeks in some counties. Warwick Hospital nurses interviewed by Carlton TV cited the reputation of the hospital and good career development among their reasons for coming to Warwick.

    Administration

  • The Trust recently opened a call centre to allow patients to telephone-book a mutually convenient first outpatient appointment. This should reduce cancellations and non-attendance. These benefits will also apply to patients who require a day case procedure following an outpatient appointment because they will be able to leave hospital with a mutually convenient date for surgery.
  • The Trust has a completely new computer system that dramatically improves the efficiency and accuracy of data collection necessary for effective patient administration.

    Childcare

    Following the recent opening of the new crèche facility for staff, planning is being undertaken to establish a holiday club for school children.

    Improving working Lives

    The 'Improving Working Lives' campaign will be shared with managers and staff in each Directorate to enhance flexible working, recruitment and retention, and to improve the working conditions in each area.
    The Trust is to expand the 'Nursing Template' project within the Medical Services Directorate. This enables greater direct control to be exercised by staff over their own staffing and rostering arrangements. If successful it will be rolled out further in other wards and departments.

    Training and development

    The successful 'Career Management' workshop held recently will be repeated, linking to the developing Trust succession planning initiative.

    Investors In People

    The Trust now possesses full organisation-wide Investors in People Accreditation. To maintain this status the newly revised and standardised appraisal process documents will be circulated from 1st April 2000, again aiding training needs identification.

    A joint approach with Coventry University to develop a new job based Postgraduate Certificate will be undertaken during 2000.

    Below National Average Sickness rate

    The Trust sickness absence rate is currently below the national NHS level. Efforts to improve performance further will, through the continued application of the Trust Sickness Management Policy, be concentrated at Directorate level. This will be facilitated by the involvement of Personnel Managers at Directorate level in tackling both short and long-term absence issues. Monitoring information will continue to be issued each month to Trust Managers and supervisors throughout the coming year.
    2000/01 this policy will be approved and implemented throughout the Trust.