Annual Members' Meeting 2021

Strategic Objective 2: People

Being a great place to work and to be a patient, where we listen, empower and value everyone.

Our key achievements over the last year are:

The Health and Wellbeing of Team ASPH, patients and community

Looking after the health and wellbeing of Team ASPH is always important, but has been absolutely imperative during the past year. During this challenging time we increased our range of wellbeing support significantly and continuously strived to find new and creative ways for colleagues to access support for their emotional wellbeing and health.

One initiative is the ‘Wellbeing Wagon’ run by our Staff Wellbeing and Pastoral Care Lead, Laurence Gamlen Laurence visits teams across the Trust several times a week, delivering treats and health and beauty products which have been kindly donated by local fundraising groups and organisations. The couple of moments that staff get to spend with Laurence may only be brief but they make a real difference and we have received really positive feedback from teams who really appreciate the gesture.

Project Wingman

Project Wingman is a group of current and former airline staff who visit NHS Trusts and healthcare services to provide space for staff to relax before, during and after their shifts and to support with their wellbeing. The group landed at ASPH towards the end of January, and has been providing a first class lounge service for colleagues to take time out of their day to relax, enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with airline staff.

Send a message of love and support

We also sought inventive new ways to help keep inpatients connected with their loved ones during these difficult times where visiting has been restricted. We launched a range of initiatives including face and phone time with loved ones, virtual consultations and free newspapers and snacks. We have also worked closely with our healthcare partners to share critically important public health information to our community. Recently, a new Health and Wellbeing Officer has been appointed to continue to shape and grow the work put in place over the past year.

COVID recruitment hub

Like many, we have transformed the way we work as individuals and teams across ASPH throughout the pandemic in line with national guidance. Some of this transformation includes colleagues working remotely where possible, some members of Team ASPH being redeployed across the Trust to provide additional support to ensure that we delivered care for those who needed it the most, as well welcoming new and former NHS colleagues to aid service provision. To accommodate these new workforce requirements we launched an innovative COVID recruitment hub.

Engaging with members of our local community was an important aim of the hub and we wanted to offer a mechanism for people to get involved. During the last year, it has been remarkable to see how many people wished to support their local healthcare provider. We were aware that a lot of people were either furloughed or had lost their jobs and were looking for work or even a change of career. The hub gave a focal point to engage with the communities around ASPH and recruited more than 500 people from our local community over the last year.

ASPH Vaccination Hub

An amazing example of this in action was the ASPH COVID vaccination hub. Since launching on 21st January, the team have given over 25,500 COVID vaccinations to Team ASPH, healthcare colleagues and members of our local community – a phenomenal achievement supporting the delivery of this life-saving vaccine.

Organising a service like this from scratch is an enormous task and it doesn’t happen without a huge amount of hard work, and a great deal of team work, welcoming members of the community from airline/hospitality industries to work alongside trust colleagues, and was a real joint effort. The work of our vaccination hub has been recognised locally and nationally – with a special mention from Health Secretary of State, Matt Hancock. This was a real turning point in our journey through the pandemic and helped give us all a sense of much needed hope earlier this year and the professionalism and dedication shown has been just incredible.

Award-winning Employees

This year has been like no other, and to mark this, the Queen recognised key workers and members of the community for their extraordinary response throughout the pandemic in her Birthday and New Year’s Honours Lists. Here at ASPH we were delighted and extremely proud that Maciel Vinagre, Assistant Manager Hotel Services, was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, and both Sara Robertson, Matron – Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and Louise Maltby, Matron – Intensive Care Unit, were named in the New Year’s Honours List 2021. These members of staff were all recipients of British Empire Medals (BEM) – a fantastic achievement and well deserved recognition.

Echoing this, we held our first-ever ASPH New Year’s Honours awards ceremony to mark the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams at the Trust to recognise their hard work and effort over the past year. Awards were handed out in categories such as ‘Passion for Excellence’, ‘Unsung Hero’ and ‘Inspiring Leader’, all of which were nominated by colleagues

Suzanne Rankin, Chief Executive, said:

It has been wonderful to be able to hold the first-ever ASPH New Year’s Honours List award ceremony. Team ASPH has been through an extraordinary experience over the last year but what has been clear throughout is just how remarkable all members of the team have been showing, their compassion, professionalism and resilience. A number of colleagues have surpassed all expectations and have truly gone above and beyond in their selfless support for patients and colleagues and it’s with great humility and pride that I have been able to celebrate their achievements with them (albeit social distanced) at the ceremony. Huge congratulations to all the winners and runners-up!

Keeping Team ASPH, patients and partners up-to-date

Clear and concise communication and engagement has never been more important than over the past year. We adapted at pace to respond to the needs of our colleagues, patients and partners, co-ordinating with local, regional and national partner organisations to roll out a new strategy.

As demonstrated throughout this report, providing timely essential information as well as enabling opportunity for open discussions, in new and creative ways through design, digital and virtual channels, was essential. Feedback has been very positive of the approach which has helped colleagues, patients and partners feel informed and connected to the hospital, during such a challenging time