Friday 16 May 2014


RSCH wins top award

In an earlier blog I reported that the Royal Surrey was one of 5 hospitals in the running for a prestigious CHKS award (CHKS is one of the two big companies which run information services for UK hospitals – Dr Forster is the other). It is great to report that RSCH has just been announced the winner of the national Patient Safety Award for 2014 for outstanding performance based on a range of indicators including hospital-acquired infections and mortality. It was also awarded a CHKS Top 40 Award for best performing trusts across the UK based on 22 indicators of clinical effectiveness, health outcomes, efficiency, patient experience and quality of care.

Friday 2 May 2014

Royal Surrey plans merger

Today the Royal Surrey announced that it intends to merge with Ashford and St Peters. The two Boards and Executives have agreed to proceed with creating a full Business Case.

Legally no merger can take place without both sets of Governors formally approving (by a  majority). Thus as a Governor I will have a vote. At the moment I am not opposed to a merger albeit I need more details of the advantages to patients. As I get my head around the detail and can judge what is reality and what is aspiration or spin I will report here.

I represent the Trust members in Guildford and have already made the point that some meaningful process for consulting Trust members (and the wider public) must be devised. If I am to vote in a way representing the Trust members who elected me and the public in Guildford then I need to know what they think.

More to follow.