The Board of Directors set a number of Corporate Objectives on an annual basis. Everything that happens within the Trust leads back to these objectives including the Board of Directors agenda.
Each year, (commencing May 09) the Trust is required by Monitor to produce a Business Plan which drives the corporate objectives and from which all business decisions are made.
Performance
The Trust made a series of significant service developments during 2010/11. They include:
schedule to open in the summer of 2012.
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Completing a major £4.7m and 17 month long refurbishment of our main medical wards Harrowden A, B and C.
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Building a new Outpatients Unit at Irthlingborough which was opened in February 2011 and will save some 32,000 patient journeys to KGH whilst at the same time provide more services closer to people’s homes.
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Opening a £78,000 state-of-the-art water birth suite for mums
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Completing the final phase of a £3.4m revamp of the pathology service to ensure the service can continue to deliver more than 7.5 million blood and diagnostic tests each year.
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Opening an innovative new blood testing service at Kettering Borough Council’s offices from January 2011 to make blood testing more convenient for our patients.
TRUST’S PATIENT SAFETY PLANS FOR 2010-2011
One of the major features of the year was a new KGH drive to improve patient safety.
This comes in addition to the Trust’s commitment to improving the patient experience and quality of care developed through its Improving Healthcare Together programme (first established in 2008/9).
The Trust Board decided to do this by developing a Patient Safety Project with the help and support of the Foundation Trust regulation body, Monitor, and private sector experts, the Boston Consulting Group.
As a result a ‘road map’ was developed by the Board to:
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Develop a patient safety strategy through consultation across KGH
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Keep the Trust Board involved with the plan throughout
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Develop robust ways of measuring safety
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Develop and implement additional safety training for staff
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Identify the resources needed to make the plan a success
The Trust aims to lead the way in patient safety by developing practical ways of making all staff more aware of safety considerations and tackling all issues that arise in an open way that encourages further improvements rather than apportioning blame.
Performance reports are provided to each meeting of the Board of Directors and or the Trust Management Committee.
The Board will also receive minutes of Board Sub Groups and regular reports including;
Council of Members
Council Members are a key community link for the Trust. They are vitally important for ensuring that the Trust gains the views of the people it serves.
By keeping in touch with local people and communities, they are responsible for feeding back to the Trust, via the Council of Members, the suggestions and ideas of Members.
Council Members act as guardians, with the responsibility of ensuring that the Trust conducts its business in a way that reflects its purpose.
Part of the role is making sure that the views of the peoples who use the Trust’s services and local communities are taken into account when plans for services are being developed.
Council Members also act as ambassadors for the Trust and champions to promote the services the Trust offers.
The Council of Members would be expected to inform Monitor (the Foundation Trust watchdog) if it had any concern about the Board of Directors, which could not be resolved at a local level.
The Chairman of the Council of Members also Chairs the Board of Directors.
The Council of Members will receive reports for discussion and comment that will then be submitted to the Board of Directors.
Monitor
The Board of Directors report to Monitor quarterly on its performance against national targets and its delivery of its strategic objectives. The Trust confirms annually that it has in place systems and processes and provide reports on;
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Financial Performance including financial projections
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Governance including Board Self Certification statements
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Mandatory Services information pertaining to the schedules of Authorisation and mitigation of significant risks
Monitor award risk ratings for NHS foundation trusts, based on information supplied to Monitor in annual plans. These ratings are reviewed quarterly, based on quarterly monitoring returns. The risk ratings for KGH can be found on the Monitor website.
Annual General Meeting
Each year in September the Trust holds an Annual General Meeting to which the public is invited. The meeting is a chance to see what the hospital has achieved over the previous financial year (April to March) and what its plans are for the year ahead. The meeting is advertised in the local press and is attended by the Chairman, the Chief Executive and senior members of staff. All Members and Council Members are invited to attend.
Service Reviews
Many service reviews are undertaken and the results of these can be found on the Care Quality Commission website.
Strategic Objectives 2010/11
The Trust set high-level strategic objectives for 2010/111. Each objective has a corresponding enabling programme. The strategic objectives are:
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Establish excellence in service quality
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Build confidence amongst stakeholders and local people
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Maximise efficiency to ensure best value from our investments and resources
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Become a model employer
Links
Monitor risk ratings - www.monitor-nhsft.gov.uk/home/about-nhs-foundation-trusts/nhs-foundation-trust-directory/kettering-general-hospital-nhs-found
Council of Members - www.kgh.nhs.uk/for-members/council-of-members/
Board of Directors meeting documents - www.kgh.nhs.uk/about-us/trust-board/meetings/
Care Quality Commission (external web link)
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