RCHT's 2023 Roundup

Our final Weekly News of 2023 is dedicated to a look back at some of our achievements over the last year, which can be easy to forget when pressures are so often relentless.

Radio Show reflections on 2023

On the RCHT Radio Show this week I sat down with Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust's Chief Executive, Steve Williamson, and Chairwoman, Mairi Mclean and spoke to them about their reflections of 2023. We talked about some of the highlights and challenges of the year and what we can look forward to in 2024. You can find The RCHT Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. You can also listen to us live every Tuesday between 12pm and 2pm on CHBN, 100.8 FM in the Truro area, on the CHBN website, on the CHBN radio app, or ask your smart speaker to play CHBN. Listen on the web: https://lnkd.in/e6twWzNk

January

Have a green day

We offered colleagues the chance to swap a regular working day with an opportunity to help out our environment as an urban ranger, countryside officer, beach cleaner or seed harvester.

An?Appy New Year

In January we relaunched our RCHT Staff App and over the last 12 months subscribers have grown to over 4,000! Keep a look out for more content and useful information in 2024.

February

A GOOD rating and fabulous feedback from maternity service users

The Care Quality Commission published its report on our maternity services in which we maintained our overall rating of GOOD. The assessment was part of the the national maternity services inspection programme which has seen a fall in ratings for many maternity services around the country. The confidence in maternity care was echoed in the national maternity service survey, which has been published in January, and where we were ranked first in the country for care at the start of pregnancy.

Care Quality Commission assessors said, "We saw staff managing challenges well and working to continually improve services for people using them which included engaging well with women and birthing people to plan and manage services. The services also had maternity safety champions, who listened to people's views to support improvement and learning."

We are open! Visiting rules finally relax

At long last we were able to return to our pre-pandemic visiting arrangements. It had always been one of the most difficult decisions to make as we battled COVID-19.??

Now you see them, now you can't

The Penventinnie Lane houses at RCH finally succumbed to the wrecking ball as we made way for the construction compound for our new hospital building programme.

March

Our world of caring

We marked NHS Overseas workers day with the launch of our first World of Caring wall hanging depicting the flags of all the nations from which team RCHT herald. Look out for installations at SMH and WCH in 2024.

Inaugural admin and clerical conference

Sally Gunnell was the guest speaker at our first ever conference for our admin and clerical teams. With a focus on resilience the away day was a great chance to focus on change, challenges and resilience.

April

Staff health checks go down a storm

The vaccination team made great use of some downtime between booster campaigns to set up free health checks to colleagues across our hospitals.? Lots of?you?took advantage of the offer with many setting themselves new wellbeing goals.

New RCHT website goes live

Our new public facing RCHT website?were launched ensuring they meet the latest accessibly laws and put visitors no more than three clicks away from the information they need. The RCHT website still holds top spot on the national SilkTide index for best NHS site!

May

Research leads to better cancer care

A new quicker and less invasive technique for sampling smaller?tissue?cells is now rapidly and effectively detecting lung and pancreatic cancers in a low-risk, day case procedure.?Detecting the most common mutations earlier helps to reduce patient anxiety, and, in cases where a mutation is detected, the best treatment plan can commence sooner.

Royal salute

With support from Falmouth and Cornwall Rotary Clubs, a new flag pole arrived at RCH just in time for King Charles III Coronation.?The Royal association of our hospitals goes back more than 200 years to when the former Royal Cornwall Infirmary opened in Truro. Some 160 years later plans were made to build a new hospital for Cornwall,?the Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske), which still continues to grow today!

June

MRI and oncology unit opens

It was excitement all round for our MRI and oncology teams as the opening day for their new building on the RCH site arrives. Transforming the environment for patient care?and those having diagnostic scans, as well as for those working there, it marks one of the first elements in Our New Hospital programme.

Civility and respect summer sessions

A series of presentations from nationally renowned speakers drew colleagues into some great discussion on the theme of civility and respect. Part of our work to embed our values - respect, compassion, honesty, teamwork?- RCHT staff?can still catch up with them now if they didn't get chance back in the summer.

July

Strata becomes one-stop-shop for onward care referrals

July saw the launch of Strata, an online referral system offering a quicker and easier way to make referrals for patients needing onward care or support when they leave hospital. With the ability to track referrals in real time and engage directly with the Integrated Transfer of Care hubs, it is aiding faster discharge.

It's go, go, go, for The RCHT Radio Show

NHS Day 5 July saw the first ever Radio Show hosted by the RCHT Communication team. A collaboration with Community and Hospital Broadcasting Network, the 2 hour, weekly show is a chance to tell our RCHT stories, with our people, in our words.

Go ahead for new outpatient department at West Cornwall Hospital

A new Outpatient Departmentis to be built at West Cornwall Hospital which will be open to patients by the end of March 2025. This follows confirmation of the allocation of funding, and an approval to proceed with the submission of the Full Business Case from NHS England. With funding and planning permission all in place, building work is set to start in January.

August

Patient Hub proves a hit with patients

The successful introduction of Patient Hub at RCHT has seen thousands of patients, young and old, take more control of their outpatient appointments. More than 70% of patients are now using it to access and manage their appointments, resulting in a drop of over 50% in the number of missed appointments.

Home haemodialysis suite transforms lives

A new training suite for patients and carers preparing to carry out dialysis treatment at home is transforming lives thanks to donations and fundraising for the RCHT Charity. Once fully trained in using the equipment it means patients will no longer need the 3 times weekly visits to one of our three renal dialysis units across Cornwall.

September

Critical care healing garden opens

RCHT becomes one of the first in the UK to open a healing garden with piped medical gases to make it accessible for critical care patients. Funded through charitable donations the garden offers the healing environment of outdoor space and fresh-air and is fully accessible for wheelchair and bed-bound patients.

eCare is coming!

September saw the launch of eCare our electronic patient record?which will eventually provide a single platform for clinical systems for RCHT, replacing several digital and paper-based systems. eCare?will?give?clinicians the most up-to-date patient information; enabling them to spend more time with their patients to provide smoother and safer care.?

This video from our annual public meeting was a look back at our year from April 2022 to March 2023, as well as looking at what was to come.

October

Mermaid Centre's new screening kit celebrated a major investment in imaging equipment during 2023

New breast screening technology for the Mermaid Centre was among a string of imaging upgrades underway during 2023. These followed the commission of two new mobile breast screening units, a new CT scanner for the Sunrise Centre, upgrades to x-ray equipment at some of our community hospital locations and refurbishment of the nuclear medicine department, including replacement of our gamma camera, underway. Quite a year for our clinical imaging teams and contractors who have done extraordinarily well to keep services running around the replacement works.

Championing Speaking Up

Although a year-round activity, October saw our annual Speak Up month with our senior leaders, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and Champions being extra visible out and about across our hospitals.? The also hosted a series of Let's Talk Breaking Barriers sessions on MS Teams to offer as many colleagues as possible the chance to raise concerns and refresh their knowledge of why we should Speak Up and the many different ways in which we can confidently do it.

Women and Children's Hospital gets Treasury approval

The news we had all been waiting for!? Approval from HMT Treasury meant?that RCHT has been recognised as being ready to continue working with our main contractor BAM towards delivering the detailed full business case for our new hospital. We're now working toward?ministerial sign off of the full business case in the summer of 2025,?full planning submission in January 2025 and completion in 2028.

National 'surgical hub accreditation' for St Michael's Hospital

St Michael's Hospital successfully became accredited as an elective surgical hub delivering high standards in clinical and operational practice.??The scheme, run by NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of England and supported by the Royal College of Anaesthetists, assesses hubs against a framework of standards to help them deliver some of the most common surgical procedures, such as cataract surgery and hip replacement, more quickly. It also seeks to assure patients about the high standards of clinical care.?The accreditation evaluates five elements: the patient pathway, staff and training, clinical governance and outcomes, facilities and ring-fencing, and utilisation and productivity and is an outstanding achievement for the team at St Michael's.

November

Pathology building gets planning approval

Full planning approval was received in November for the expansion of the pathology building on the RCH site.? This is the largest and most complex of the “enabling” schemes that will make way for the construction of the new Women and Children’s Hospital. The existing pathology laboratories and services will eventually?move from the ?“Link Corridor”, which will be demolished in 2026.

Mobile endoscopy coming to a place near you!

A mobile community trans-nasal endoscopy service took to the road offering patients more flexibility and choice on where to receive a diagnostic?trans-nasal endoscopy. Usually?tied to hospitals, with advances in mobile ventilation and decontamination of endoscopes we can now deliver this service within treatment rooms at our fabulous community hospitals.

December

Bedside butterflies

The Butterfly Companion Volunteer Service is now a key part of end-of-life care at RCHT.?A year-long pilot project funded by the RCHT Charity has proved so successful that Butterfly Companions have been integrated into our everyday services. Around 20 specially trained volunteers support dying patients and their families. Known as Butterfly Companions, their role is to provide comfort, compassion, and companionship at a very difficult time.

Celebrating our long serving colleagues

Each year, the Long Service Awards honour the hard work and commitment of colleagues who have reached 25 years of service to the NHS. Marking also the 75th anniversary of the NHS.?This year, RCHT had more than 80 colleagues eligible for their Long Service Awards in the period from July 2022 to July 2023, and over 130 from our 2021 to 2022 who'd had their presentations postponed due to the pandemic.

Some end of year facts and figures

• 19 Specialities are close to achieving no patients waiting more than 52 weeks for planned routine care, which is a year ahead of target!
• We continue to perform?better than many areas as we work towards meeting all cancer diagnosis and treatment standards - 95.1% begin treatment within 31 days of diagnosis
• We are doing 17% more elective care than we were pre-pandemic, even with the impact of industrial action
• Over 80% of people attending West Cornwall Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre are seen, treated, admitted or discharged within 4 hours
• 100% of stroke patients received a CT scan within 12 hours during November
• Despite rising referral rates, our overall waiting list has fallen from over 48,500?to just over 44,000.?