One Message
The monthly staff briefing
from the Chief Executive
Dear Colleague,
In this One Message I would like to start with
news about one of our stars. All St George’s
staff will be sad to hear that Marie Grant will be
retiring from the Trust and the NHS next March
after 35 years in the health service. Marie has
provided outstanding leadership to St George’s.
Over the past seven plus years she has been
director of nursing, director of operations and,
on two occasions, acting chief executive. I’m
quite sure all staff will wish her well.
However, in the six months from September
Marie will be the Programme Director for NHS
London for four days a week, with responsibil-
ity for implementing the Healthcare Commis-
sion report into maternity services in London,
which has resulted in action plans for every
maternity department in the capital. She will
continue with us as Director lead for iClip and
the development of the trauma network.
Ruth Carnall, Chief Executive of NHS London,
said: “Improving maternity services is a top
priority and I am delighted that the NHS in
London will be able to benefit from Marie’s
experiences for the next six months.”
Now I would like to focus on some good news.
St George’s was recently praised for its efforts
to reduce waiting times and control infection,
and for these achievements you should all take
credit.
We were one of the first hospitals in the coun-
Our values + Treat all
try to meet the national target to shorten wait-
people with respect
ing times – nine months ahead of schedule.
and dignity + Deliver
St George’s was one of just 35 in England and
care in partnership with
one of six in London to have already met the
others + Continually December 2008 target to have 95 per cent of
strive for excellence outpatients and 90 per cent of inpatients and
+ Ensure probity and daycases receiving treatment within 18 weeks
transparency in spend- of referral. A tremendous achievement.
ing public money + Be
And we are one of the few hospitals so far to be
an exemplary employer
given the all clear in a new inspection regime
+ Be committed to
to assess breaches of the hygiene code. The
education, training and
results follow an unannounced inspection by
research + Be open the Healthcare Commission that took place in
and honest with each March to check-up on our progress to protect
other patients from infection. The on-the-spot check
June 2008
was part of the health watchdog’s examination
of 120 trusts in England.
The results of the inspection were graded on
a new traffic light system which came into
force in January. Trusts marked red must take
immediate action, orange identified areas
that need improvement and green is given
where no breaches of duties in the Hygiene
Code were found. St George’s was given three
greens, making us only the second hospital
in the country so far to receive this new top
rating. These green lights signal that we are
doing all the right things to provide a safe and
clean environment for our patients. For this, we
should be proud ; we now just need to keep up
the good work.
Living our values
To maintain these standards we should look
to our Trust values. These are the standards of
behaviour expected of us all. The annual staff
survey showed many areas of improvement
but it did highlight that these standards are
not consistently applied across the Trust. Our
values are:
Treat all people with respect and dignity
Whatever the job we do, we all have a part to
play to ensure that we treat other people as
we would be expect to be treated ourselves.
This applies as much to respecting a patient’s
privacy as it does to speaking to all colleagues
on an equal basis.
Deliver care in partnership with others
Increasingly as we grow our services, St
George’s will have to work more closely with
local hospitals via clinical networks. This will
require tolerance and teamwork.
Continually strive for excellence
To meet the expectations of our patients and
staff, we must strive for the highest standards
and obtain them consistently.
Ensure probity and transparency
As a public body we are accountable for how
we spend public money and so some element
of ‘form-filling’ is needed to ensure that we get
best value for the public purse.
 Be an exemplary employer
We want to be a magnet for talent so we must
invest in, support and develop our staff so that
they can give their best to patients.
Be committed to education, training and
research
Through our partnership with St George’s Uni-
versity of London we aim to nurture health-
care professionals to push the boundaries of
medical innovation. Research and education
are as important as the care given to patients.
St George’s has to be excellent at all three.
Be open and honest with each other.
And crucially, we must be truthful with each
other. If mistakes occur we do not want the
facts covered up; we must be honest, discuss
them and learn to do better.
At the heart of our values is our duty to treat
our colleagues and patients with dignity,
respect and equality, irrespective of their
background or beliefs. This is the Trust Board’s
expectation of all staff at St George’s and I will
revisit each of these values often to reinforce
their importance to all staff and the future
achievements of the Trust.
Better than the average
We are doing many things right at St George’s
and as a measure of our quality, it is what
patients say about our care that really counts.
In some areas, our patients placed us with the
top performers in the country, while in others
we clearly must do better. But overall, the an-
nual poll showed that standards of care at St
George’s are rising year on year.
The Healthcare Commission survey listed St
Our values + Treat all
George’s in the top 20 per cent of trusts na-
people with respect
tionally in eight key areas of the survey, includ-
and dignity + Deliver ing for patients being treated more quickly,
care in partnership with staff washing their hands and the quality of
others + Continually information we give our patients.
strive for excellence
+ Ensure probity and Almost half of patients surveyed said they had
transparency in spend- been treated within two months at St George’s
compared to the national average of 42 per
ing public money + Be
cent. We also saw 12 per cent more patients
an exemplary employer
than the national average within four months
+ Be committed to and eight per cent more when compared to
education, training and other London teaching hospitals.
research + Be open
and honest with each Our patients also said that they were seeing
other more of our staff washing their hands. 76.9
per cent of patients said they had always seen
doctors washing their hands and 76.4 per
cent said the same of our nurses. This was a
significant improvement on last year’s results
and puts us third highest in London for hand
hygiene. We were also ranked third highest in
London and the south east for the quality of
answers staff gave patients. In particular, staff
in A&E were praised for their explanation of
conditions and treatment to patients. 80.4 per
cent of patients said they were given the right
amount of information about their condition
in A&E, compared to the national average of
74 per cent.
Finally, we showed further improvements on
the quality of information given to patients on
their discharge, including questions on medi-
cines and side effects. On top of this, 96.9 per
cent of our patients said they received their
appointment letters compared to the national
average of just 39 per cent.
Must do better
However, there are aspects of our care that
we must improve. St George’s was listed in
the worst 20 per cent of trusts in three areas:
including patients sharing mixed-sex wards
and bathroom facilities, and patients feeling
threatened during their hospital stay by other
patients and visitors.
It is very concerning that any patient stay-
ing at St George’s has felt threatened and we
must make sure all patients are treated with
the utmost dignity and respect by staff, other
patients and hospital visitors. This is an issue
the Trust takes very seriously and we will be
looking closely at this to do all we can to make
sure our patients feel secure.
We must also do better at caring for patients
in single-sex bays. The majority of our patients
are cared for on single-sex bays and, in line
with Department of Health guidance, all wards
contain separate toilet facilities for men and
women. However, St George’s is a very busy
hospital and there are circumstances when pa-
tients may be placed temporarily in mixed-sex
bays in order not to create delays in their care.
As part of the Trust’s ward redevelopment
programme, we are building more single side
rooms and more single-sex facilities. But there
is still much more to be done and this is one of
our highest priorities.

Our values + Treat all
people with respect
and dignity + Deliver
care in partnership with
others + Continually
strive for excellence
+ Ensure probity and
transparency in spend-
ing public money + Be
an exemplary employer
+ Be committed to
education, training and
research + Be open
and honest with each
other
One Message is team brief which can be discussed with your line manager at your departmental or ward meetings to keep us all up to date on the latest
news and initiatives in the Trust. We hope you find this briefing useful. Please email any comments to one.message@stgeorges.nhs.uk
However, we must not lose sight of the overall
picture. This year, St George’s was listed as sev-
enth out of 44 trusts in London and the south
east for our patients’ overall experience of their
care. This achievement alone is testament to
the calibre of staff we have at St George’s and
demonstrates your commitment to do the best
we can for our patients.
Improving care
Financially we are also improving our perform-
ance. Four years ago we faced a long-standing
deficit of £21.7 million. Through your determi-
nation we have now turned this deficit into a
£5.9 million surplus in 2007/08. It is true this
position was boosted by one-off savings from
the sale of the Grove staff accommodation to a
housing association, but this should not detract
from the scale of the achievement; if anything
it should enhance it. The sale of the Grove was
an important step. By handing management
of the Grove over to an independent manage-
ment company, we can provide a much higher
standard of accommodation for our staff but
also at affordable rents that we alone could
never achieve.
But we must continue to tighten our belts. We
have now caught up with the rest of the NHS
and face the same requirements to find ef-
ficiency savings each year, but the scale of this
challenge is now much less without the black
cloud of our financial past.
This year, our financial target is to make a £1m
surplus. This is achievable through Transforming
St George’s – our five year plan to improve the
overall experience of our care for both patients
and staff. We currently have a £6 million savings
shortfall towards achieving this target, but it is
still early in the year and I have shared the finan-
cial measures we must put in place with budget
holders across the Trust. Making continued sav-
ings is always difficult, but we should take stock
of our achievements to date and look forward
with renewed vigour. We cannot transform by
continuingly cutting budgets. Instead, we must
seek to find cost efficiencies by improving the
way the hospital works to sustain our quality of
services. This may require justified investment in
some areas with careful management in others.
Our financial recovery stepped up a further gear
last month as we welcomed Richard Eley to the
Trust as our new permanent director of finance.
Richard brings with him a wealth of experience
in the NHS and has successfully led his previous
Trust to achieve Foundation Trust status. He will
be the lead director to help St George’s achieve
this same objective. As an FT, we will have
greater freedom and independence to develop
services in line with the needs of our patients
and retain the financial surpluses we make. We
are now able to make manageable steps to-
wards ourselves becoming an FT and I will keep
all staff updated on our progress.
Dealing with today
Before this however, there are important issues
that we must address today if we are to achieve
our goals for the future. Just last week we saw a
record 352 patients in A&E in just one day. This
is placing exceptional strain on our staff and the
hospital’s capacity. The Clinical Management
Board has discussed this issue at length and we
are drawing up business cases to take appropri-
ate action. This will include the provision of a
CT scanner adjacent to A&E and the expansion
of the Medical Admissions Ward. Marie Grant,
Trust director of operations, will also be leading
work to free-up capacity in the short term while
planning for the longer term, including imple-
menting the recommendations from the urgent
care review.
I have seen at first hand the professionalism of
staff and the pressure they are under from my
visits to clinical areas around the Trust. To make
sure we are providing consistent and high qual-
ity care for our patients we must make sure that
we are supporting our staff. Over the coming
weeks, my Trust Board colleagues and I will be
stepping up a ‘walk about’ programme to visit
wards and departments frequently to listen to
front line staff and patients face-to-face. As well
as listening to your views and ideas, we want to
promote patient safety and address any areas of
concern that we may find. Rather than visiting
wards and departments at random or as the
situation demands, there will be a published
timetable of visits. As well as listening to you,
director colleagues will want to discuss with you
patient safety issues and your knowledge of the
Trust’s policies and procedures.
Thank you as always and keep up the good
work.
Best wishes,
David Astley
Chief Executive