A message from Dr Claire Fuller
 A key focus for us as a system continues to be on recovery and recently we heard we have been selected to be part of a national NHS England accelerator programme that will pioneer new ways of working to help develop a blueprint for how we restore routine NHS care after the pandemic.
The impact of Covid, along with additional safety measures, has inevitably had a knock-on effect on non-emergency care, but our mission now is to rapidly recover routine services for our citizens. Being selected to lead this work is good news because it brings additional investment and extra support to help us accelerate this work and get people who have been waiting for operations and elective procedures in as quickly as possible.
Mental health is another area where we have seen a real impact as a result of the pandemic. To gain a better understanding, and in response to concerns that some residents weren’t getting the help they needed, we set up a new taskforce, with partners from across the system, to review the current provision. We recognise there’s work to do and improvements that need to be made and you can read about our plans below.
There’s been some great work happening in women’s and children’s services – with the re-launch of our newly renamed ‘Call a Midwife’ maternity helpline and news that Children and Family Health Surrey has retained the Unicef ‘baby friendly’ status despite a challenging year.
We’ve seen East Surrey Hospital recognised by the Care Quality Commission for outstanding practice in infection control, which has never been more critical. And there’s also been important work happening on end of life care, culminating in the publication of our Surrey Heartlands Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy. Based on insight from people receiving end of life care, their families, staff and our wider partners, the strategy aims to really put people, their carers and families at the centre, with care that’s tailored to meet individual needs and wishes. You can read more about this, and our ambitions in this area, below.
Best wishes,
Claire
Dr Claire Fuller, Senior Responsible Officer, Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System and Interim Accountable Officer, Surrey Heartlands CCG
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Surrey Heartlands to help lead NHS Routine Care Recovery Plan
NHS teams across Surrey Heartlands will trail new ways of working to help develop a blueprint for restoring routine NHS care after the pandemic, as part of a new plan unveiled by NHS England.
With the continuing success of the Covid-19 vaccination programme meaning that hospitals are now dealing with far fewer Covid cases, the NHS is now supporting all local health systems in England to treat as many patients whose care was unavoidably disrupted by the pandemic as quickly as possible.
To help find ways to allow the NHS in England to continue progress already made, Surrey Heartlands has been chosen to receive a share of £160m in funding and extra support to implement and evaluate innovative ways to increase the number of planned operations and other procedures locally.
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New Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy Launched
Surrey Heartlands has pledged its commitment to improving end of life care for local people through publication of its new Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy.
Improving palliative and end of life care is a key priority of the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Board. In developing the strategy we spoke to health and care staff, our local and system partners and the voluntary sector. We have also spoken to people receiving end of life care and their families and we have used this insight to develop our own local ambitions to improve care.
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Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum receive Queen's Award
Huge congratulations to the Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (SMEF), which has received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
SMEF work to unify ethnic minority communities across Surrey. They do this by working with more than 40 ethnically diverse community groups to amplify their collective voices and aspirations.
They then share this feedback with key agencies and stakeholders in Surrey so we can work together to celebrate our diversity and create a more cohesive county.
You can find out more about the work they do in this video.
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Watch now
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New support for survivors of domestic abuse in Surrey
As part of a Domestic Abuse Transformation Programme, Health Independent Domestic Violence Advocates have been employed to support survivors of Domestic Abuse at four hospitals across Surrey Heartlands - Epsom Hospital, St Peter’s Hospital, East Surrey Hospital and Royal Surrey County Hospital.
The project has been developed through collaboration between the Surrey Domestic Abuse Partnership, hospital safeguarding leads and staff, Surrey Heartlands CCG and Surrey County Council.
The advocates aim to play a critical part in supporting survivors with the aim of reducing further harm to them and their children while they are in hospital and when they return home.
For more information on domestic abuse and help and support in Surrey see www.surreyagainstda.info
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Services re-awarded 'Baby friendly' status
Congratulations to Children and Family Health Surrey’s health visiting service, which has recently been recommended to become re-accredited as ‘baby friendly’.
Services which implement Unicef’s best practice standards receive the prestigious Baby Friendly award, which is a nationally recognised mark of quality care.
This is an incredible achievement, following the need to respond, and adapt quickly to keep services running for new mums and their babies during the pandemic.
As part of the assessment process, and outcome, it was noted that almost all mothers (98%) commented on the kindness of the staff, recognising the challenges they have been working under and were grateful for the input they received.
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Surrey-wide mental health review to pave way for improvements
A wide-ranging review of Surrey’s mental health system will pave the way for a series of improvements to the way that services work together to help residents in need of support.
We set up a taskforce to review mental health services following a rise in demand due to the pandemic and concern that some residents were being poorly served.
The taskforce marks a step change in approach as it brings together key partners including local NHS organisations, the police, the county council, district and borough councils, schools and charities.
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Call a Midwife Advice Line provides round-the-clock advice and support to mums-to-be
Following feedback from people using Surrey’s maternity services, the Surrey Heartlands Pregnancy Advice Line is now the ‘Call a Midwife Advice Line’.
The new name was inspired by the hugely popular BBC One drama ‘Call the Midwife’ and reflects the breadth of the service, taking over 65,000 calls a year from women and their partners throughout their pregnancy, labour and after the birth of their child. It also highlights the fact that every call is answered by a qualified, local midwife.
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Using patient data to improve care
Following recent media coverage and some myths about how data will be used in future, we have published a summary of how the NHS uses data and the benefits of sharing data, the types of data being shared, and some changes that are happening soon.
Patient data is used every day to improve healthcare services through planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care. The video below explains more.
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Watch now
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CQC report highlights outstanding practice at East Surrey Hospital
A new report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has identified examples of outstanding practice and staff feeling ‘respected, supported and valued’ following an inspection of infection control at East Surrey Hospital.
The report highlights three areas of outstanding practice, including the way in which SASH worked in partnership with local care homes to aid training and understanding at the start of the pandemic.
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Grand designs for new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital
Local people are being invited to have their say on the early designs of the new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, which is going to be built on the site of the former Sutton Hospital, in a series of public events, being run by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, later this month.
Since the proposal to build a brand new hospital in Sutton and invest millions of pounds in refurbishing the existing Epsom and St Helier hospitals was approved last year as part of the Improving Care Together programme, work has been ongoing to plan the footprint of the new building and what it might look like – and now it’s time for those early designs to be revealed and local people to have their say.
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Find out more, come to System Board!
Our System Board meetings are a great opportunity to hear about the work we are doing to improve quality, care and health outcomes for our population.
Our next meeting is on 21 July at 9am. It will be a virtual meeting – you can join online or by phone. The agenda and joining details will be published here nearer the time.
You can read a summary of our last meeting in our System Board Update.
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Latest news from Surrey Heartlands
The latest updates on the work of Surrey Heartlands can be found on our website. To find out more please click here.
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