In 2018, the Trust produced a strategy setting out how the Trust will adapt to changes in the NHS and ensure that we continue to be a thriving and independent Foundation Trust within the context of increasing demand.
The key principles of the strategy are
Each year in May the Trust has to produce a Strategic Plan for NHS Improvement, setting out its key objectives and priorities for the coming year. This document is different from the Trust’s own strategy and contains a brief overview highlighting the achievements and challenges of the previous year and the Trust's plans and financial forecasts for the next two years setting out how the strategic direction will be taken forward.
The Trust originally produced a Service Development Strategy (SDS) as part of its application to become a Foundation Trust which sets out the Trust's key strategic objectives and its plan for how it would develop over a five year period. The main aims were:
The Trust's non-financial performance is assessed and monitored in the following areas:
Monitor reviews the Trust's performance quarterly against a number of key performance measures. These include: waiting times in A&E, waiting times for patients with cancer, waiting times from GP referral to treatment, and rates of hospital acquired infections.
The Trust Board also receives an update on the Trust's performance four times a year during public meetings. Trust Board meetings are held in public once every two months.
Details of Trust Board meetings, agendas and papers.
The Trust is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC assesses the Trust’s compliance against a number of key essential standards.
Until 2010, the Care Quality Commission gave an assessment of health organisations against a range of different performance indicators (some 25 indicators in all, including those reviewed under the compliance framework). On the basis of these indicators, the former Healthcare Commission award a rating of poor, fair, good or excellent for a Trust's performance in providing good quality care and using its resources effectively. In October 2008 Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust was assessed as being good for quality of care and excellent for use of resources, putting it in the top 24% of organisations at the time.
All NHS Hospital Trusts were required to make an annual declaration to the Care Quality Commission stating their compliance with the Standards for Better Health.
Each year the Trust has to publish a Quality Account. These set out our priority areas for the coming year and our performance against a range of quality indicators. This is a legal requirement and Quality Accounts are audited in much the same way as financial accounts to ensure that hospitals have effective systems in place to assure the quality of care, and that patients have access to a greater range of information that can help them judge the standard of their local hospital. Trust Quality Account.
All hospitals have to carry out national patient surveys. For each survey, a random sample of people who have used hospital services are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire to gauge their experience of hospital care. The results are published on the CQC website. The Trust develops actions plans to address weaknesses and areas for improvement. These are reviewed at Trust Board level.
In addition, all hospitals now ask patients whether they would recommend the hospital as part of the national Friends & Family test.
Our staff at Salisbury District Hospital have long been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment they provide for our patients and for their innovation, commitment and professionalism. This has been recognised in a wide range of achievements and it is reflected in our award of NHS Foundation Trust status. This is afforded to hospitals that provide the highest standards of care.