Annual Members' Meeting 2021

Strategic Objective 5: Collaborate - Sustain and Thrive

Working with our partners in health and care to ensure provision of high quality, sustainable NHS services to the communities we serve.

Our key achievements over the last year are:

ASPH as an anchor institution

Support from the local community over the past year has been both humbling and overwhelming. Financial donations from NHS Charities Together (with donations from Captain Sir Thomas Moore) and the community provided nursing staff with a nutritious hot meal made from fresh ingredients, iPads for patient communication with loved ones, PPE supplies and an outdoor wellness area for colleagues to eat, relax and socialise. As well as the community taking such great care of us, we wanted to give back too and some of the ways we have done this include supporting healthcare partners across the county with supplies, providing employment for those who had been furloughed or lost their jobs due to the pandemic, as well as continuing to support our local foodbanks This last year has enabled us to strengthen our relationships and further embed our position as an anchor institution within the community we serve.

Collaborating in new ways with new partners

For the first time in history ASPH partnered with local independent hospitals, BMI Runnymede and Nuffield Health Woking, who handed over wards and theatres to ASPH patients which provided space to care for COVID patients. These new collaborations have harnessed sustainable ventures to continue to provide the best care and facilities possible for Team ASPH and patients.

A recent example of this is Lighthouse laboratory project, where we have worked imaginatively with our partners at pace to meet the needs of the national effort, creating a state of the art lab that will process an incredible 30-40,000 PCR tests a day across Berkshire and Surrey.

Progression with the North West Surrey Health and Care Alliance

Along with partners across North West Surrey, the Trust has now signed the NWS Alliance Agreement and a Board has been constituted. By bringing together local health and care organisations, the Alliance is using all its experience and know-how to improve the way public money is spent and making sure big decisions are taken together for the benefit of local people.

This is one of the largest public sector Alliances in the UK and is taking a different approach to improving the health and wellbeing of the 370,000 people living across Elmbridge, Runnymede, Spelthorne and Woking.

Our local GP Federation, to run our Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC)

An example of NWS Alliance partner working is ASPH joining forces with NICS, our local GP Federation, to run our Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) in April 2020. This collaboration is the first partnership between ASPH and NICS and has provided an opportunity for the flexible provision of emergency services for our local population. The UTC provides a service staffed by local GPs and Nurse/Paramedic practitioners to deliver services for patients of all ages with minor injuries and minor illnesses. Delivery through our local GP Federation provides a link between Primary and Secondary care as the staff know the local area and services that are available. Patient attendances have returned too, and are exceeding, pre-pandemic levels and the UTC is developing and providing innovative care to support the increased demand.

NICS as an organisation has further supported the Trust through the delivery of Respiratory ED Clinics (REED) that have helped patients who have had COVID to be allowed home earlier or directly from the emergency department and followed up through dedicated virtual clinics. This has enabled us to maximise capacity within the Trust and ensured that patients are monitored and have access to early escalation back to the Trust if and when needed. This partnership with NICS has provided huge benefits and we will be looking at ways to develop this collaborative approach in the future.

ASPH Strategy Re-fresh

The pandemic has brought a different focus to the next two-five years for ASPH. We have embarked on a mid-term Strategy Re-fresh to reflect this. The engagement process - insight from Team ASPH, partners, patients and our community - will be a key springboard to setting the future direction of the Trust.