22 December 2011
As Christmas is now just around the corner, I wanted to take the opportunity to wish all of our patients and visitors warm season's greetings.
What a year!
As 2011 has been another a fantastic year for our hospitals, with some amazing highpoints, I wanted to share a brief overview of the past 12 months with you.
January was my first month at the Trust and I received an incredibly warm welcome. In February, we formally announced our plans to spend £2.5 million on a major redevelopment of the day surgery unit at Epsom - the biggest investment at the hospital for years.
Top 20% of hospitals
March saw the Government's health watchdog publish the results of its annual NHS staff survey. For us, they showed a significant improvement on years gone by, with 93% of our staff saying their role makes a difference to patients - placing us in the top 20% of hospitals nationally.
Another independent survey was published in April; this time for patients. This showed improvements too, including 87% of patients saying their care was good or excellent - again placing us in the top 20% of hospitals across the country.
We marked Nurses' Day in May and Maria Paterson, matron for specialty medicine, was awarded 'Nurse of the Year'.
Cutting edge technology
In June, we opened a brand new, state-of-the-art dialysis centre - complete with the latest in cutting edge technology - in Epsom.
The efforts of staff working in the St Helier maternity unit resulted in the opening of the 'Poppy Room' in July, a peaceful 'safe haven' for families who have experienced a stillbirth.
Hundreds of staff and their guests attended our annual staff awards in August with 72 people receiving awards for 15 years at the Trust, 31 for 25 years NHS service and three for 40 years - that's a combined service of 1,975 years!
Annual tea party
The 446 volunteers who give up their time to support services across our hospitals were celebrated at a prestigious annual tea party in September.
October saw us officially announce plans to invest £742,000 to improve the care given to patients admitted to our hospitals in a life-threatening or emergency situation. The cash boost has funded an additional team of six senior doctors, supported by nurses, therapists and other healthcare workers.
Bidders announced
Television personality Anthea Turner dropped into Epsom in November to officially open our new £634,000 CT scanner.
We also announced that Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St George's Healthcare NHS Trust had bid to merge with Epsom and St Helier (respectively).
December has been an extremely busy month too, with us officially opening our new pathology laboratory at Epsom and - to top off the year - we were named as one of the 21 safest hospital trusts in the country by the Dr Foster Hospital Guide.
For more information about any points above, simply follow the links. You may also be interested in having a look at the 2011 gallery, which contains a selection of our best photos from the year.
2012 and beyond
2012 will undoubtedly be a defining year for our hospitals, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges for us. To keep up with all of our latest news and events, and for more information about how to get involved with our work, please check back on our website regularly. You can also follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/epsom_sthelier) or find us on Facebook (Facebook.com/epsomsthelier).
Merry Christmas
Wishing you all best for the festive period and a very peaceful and healthy 2012.
Kind regards,
Matthew Hopkins
Chief Executive
