It felt fantastic this week to be able to hold our Annual Members Meeting in person for the first time since 2019!

Thank you to everyone who made it along to event at the Royal Windsor Racecourse on Tuesday 26 September and to all the staff and teams who helped to make it so special. In our ‘marketplace’ of stalls and displays we covered all aspects of our work and it was great to see so many dedicated and enthusiastic professionals under one roof talking to our members and other guests about their work.

It was also great to be able to meet with many of you face to face so we could be really open and honest with you about the challenges facing the NHS, acknowledge our operational pressures and to explain what we are doing so that we can provide the access to quality services that we and the public expect. And it made me very proud to also be able to share with you some of the brilliant work that our staff are doing – including a successful first year of the new Heatherwood Hospital and how our new electronic patient record is completely changing the way we deliver care for the better.

I hope you enjoy reading more about our AMM and the latest news from across our Trust during the last few weeks.
Bryan

New £25 million NHS diagnostic centre for Slough

Local people are being invited to have their say on a brand-new standalone NHS diagnostic centre planned for Slough in 2025. 

Opening for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, the Slough community diagnostic centre (CDC) will provide a wide range of diagnostic services including MRI, CT, and ultrasound scans, and testing for lung and heart conditions, as well as blood tests and x-rays.

The centre aims to improve people’s health outcomes in the area – by enabling more people to access diagnostic tests more quickly, easily and closer to their home, leading to earlier diagnoses of symptoms and better, more timely treatment. It will also help to reduce waiting lists by increasing capacity as the Slough CDC will double the current MRI and CT capacity in the town and surrounding areas.

The centre, subject to necessary planning approvals, will be developed on an unused area of the Upton Hospital site by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, working closely with partners from across the wider Frimley health and care system. 

During early October 2023, people will be able to give their views on aspects of the new CDC, to help ensure that the Trust’s planning application reflects the preferences of local communities. For further information on how to have your say, see here.

We meet again! AMM 2023 

More than a hundred members and staff came together for the first time in four years at this week’s fantastic Annual Members’ Meeting. Held in a picturesque setting between the river and track at Royal Windsor Racecourse, the event was as popular as ever with a mix of new and long-term members meeting staff and visiting the health stands before the main presentations kicked off.

Our teams showcased many of our services in the AMM ‘marketplace’ with 33 stands covering everything from the new hospital programme and our latest research projects, to the latest advances in cardiology care and breast cancer awareness.  

For those of you who attended the event, your comments were much appreciated with people saying they found the range of health stands “really informative” and that they “learned a lot more about the Trust this evening”. While others also enjoyed the in-person aspect and said, “how lovely it is to see familiar faces and find out what’s planned for the next few years for Frimley”.

Maternity teams rated ‘Good’ by national inspectors 

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have found that maternity teams at Frimley Health are providing high quality services to women and families in our care. Following a detailed inspection, the departments at Wexham Park and Frimley Park both achieved ‘Good’ ratings in the CQC report published earlier this month.

The report highlighted several areas of good practice by our maternity teams, including the implementation and use of MAMAS Line, our 24-hour maternity triage and advice phone service, birthing plans that are co-produced with safeguarding teams, and our work in areas such as cultural sensitivities and health inequalities.

This means that the Trust’s overall rating remains Good, with Wexham Park Hospital also rated Good and Frimley Park Hospital outstanding. Read more

Frimley Park’s upgraded heart treatment lab opens to patients  

One of Frimley Park Hospital’s catheter laboratories, used for the investigation and treatment of cardiac conditions, has been transformed in the first phase of an extensive £2m modernisation programme. 

The refurbishment will reduce the time taken to perform some common heart procedures, such as angioplasty, and allows more cardiac work to be carried out locally rather than patients having to travel to tertiary centres in London. 

Following the 16-week upgrade, Cath lab 1 has reopened to patients and includes a specialist x-ray machine that emits 40% less radiation, modern surgical lighting, and a new digital viewing system with a large LCD display screen to help reduce patient anxiety before procedures. 

Read more here 

Nurse shortlisted in ‘Oscars of the healthcare industry’ awards  

One of our nurse consultant’s, Andrew Barton, has secured his second prestigious awards shortlisting in the space of a few weeks.  Andrew, our intravenous therapy and vascular access lead, had already been named as a Nurse of the Year finalist in the 2023 Nursing Times Awards. And at the beginning of this month, he was also revealed to be among nine people in the running in the Clinical Leader of the Year category in the prestigious HSJ Awards.  

Andrew built our intravenous and vascular access service (providing medicine and fluids into veins) from a two-person team to one with nine staff cross-site, was the first practitioner to use near infrared technology to visualise veins, wrote national guidelines on flushing IV and was part of the group that created guidelines on the use of infusion pumps during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, through Andrew’s leadership, Frimley Health created the first seven-day vascular access service cross site.  

Read more here

Get winter-strong and protect yourself from flu and COVID-19 

This year’s autumn flu and COVID-19 vaccine programme has launched and everyone at risk from winter illness will be able to access the vaccines for free in the coming weeks.
The list of those eligible includes the clinically vulnerable, those aged 65 and over, health and social care staff, and carers. All those who are eligible are urged to come forward for their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations as soon as they are invited. From the 18 September, the NHS started to invite people in priority order of risk and those eligible will be able to book an appointment on the National Booking Service.

Wherever possible, both vaccinations will be offered at the same time, making it easier for people to get vital protection from both viruses ahead of winter. There will also be separate COVID-19 and flu clinics. For more info, see the Frimley Health and Care website.

Be a life-saver and register for organ donation

This year 39 organs were donated at Frimley and Wexham Park Hospitals, irreversibly changing 39 lives. While this is a fantastic result for Frimley Health, more than 50 per cent of the population still have not registered their decision about donating an organ. To put this into context, although there were 3,029 transplants last year nationally, there are still over 7,000 people on the transplant list. Of those who are waiting, 782 are in the South-East region, of which Frimley Health is a part, so there is still a long way to go.  

This month, we marked Organ Donation Week to raise awareness of this important issue in the hope that more people will register their choice. You can register at any time at NHS Organ Donation and make sure your wishes are known by your loved ones. Registering takes just two minutes and you could save up to nine lives in the future.