I have taken over Suzanne’s message of the week today and I want to use the opportunity to tell you more about the ASPH Transformation Programme happening at both Ashford and St Peter’s over the next few years.
As we send this out on Friday afternoon, colleagues across the Trust are still presenting their fantastic Dragons’ Den ideas. Now in our second year, I am delighted to report we have had the most amazing response. Last year we had 23 submissions. This year we have had almost 50. In fact we have had so many that we are still watching the presentations. Last year we were finished by lunchtime.
We all know Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals play vital community roles. The hospitals and clinics are mainly seen as places where people go when they are unwell or have had an accident.
But alongside responding to the health and disease needs of the local community we can, and should, play a much wider role in tackling the wider determinants of health and wellbeing and health inequalities thus preventing and reducing illness, disease and suffering. This will both reduce demand on the hospitals but also improve sustainability and support wider local economic growth and wellbeing.
Welcome to this month’s video message, which focuses on the very important topic of patient catering.
I hope this video gives you some insight into the process of how we cater for patients, how we do our very best to provide nutritious meals, and the importance of nutrition and the mealtime experience in supporting patients in their recovery.
Each week Suzanne Rankin, our Chief Executive, sends a message to staff about events at the hospitals, special achievements, and plans for the future.
We shall be adding them to this section as well as including them on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
From time to time, we shall ask other members of the Trust Board and clinical team to give their perspective on the week in our hospitals.
Suzanne was announced as the new Chief Executive in June 2014.
Suzanne began her nursing and management career with the Royal Navy, including deployment during the 1990 Gulf War; a spell as Senior Nursing Officer at NATO Headquarters in Lisbon; and Nursing Officer in charge of the 56-bed Trauma and Orthopaedic Unit at the former Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire.