"The NHS is currently undergoing its biggest transformation since being founded 65 years ago. Although this brings with it some very exciting times, it has been, and will continue to be, a time of intense political, media and public scrutiny.
"For the staff at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 2012/13 was a challenging year with performance remaining strong despite a prolonged and extremely busy winter. I am very proud that we remained compliant for the whole year against all our targets set by Monitor, the independent regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts. These included the challenging A&E 4 hour access target and all infection control targets.
"The pressure on A&E departments across London has been widely reported in the media, yet we managed to meet our targets while maintaining quality and safety for our patients. We also met the quality and regulatory goals for MRSA and C. difficile - another significant achievement for the Trust.
"During 2012/13 we also successfully bid for funding worth £12.3m from the Department of Health to invest in our Emergency Care Services and over £700,000 to refurbish our Maternity Unit. This modernisation work will take place during 2013 and 2014 and will help to further strengthen our position as a Major Acute Trust as recommended by the North West London ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ Programme. This work represents a significant investment in our services and will help to ensure that our patients continue to receive the very best care.
"The redesign of our Emergency Care services will include an Urgent Care Centre for patients who do not require emergency treatment and a new 46 bed Acute Medical Unit to improve the quality of care for patients and to reduce the length of time they stay in Hospital.
"As with any organisation, there are always improvements to be made, but at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, by ensuring we keep patient care as our top priority, we will continue to work hard to deliver the very best care to our patients.
"As part of our pledge to deliver this care, our board of directors has refocused and updated our vision, focussing on care safety and quality for our patients. Our new trust vision: To put compassionate care, safety and quality at the heart of everything we do. This was chosen in consultation with staff and reflects our established CARES values. These values are being embedded throughout the organisation to ensure that the positive behaviours of communication, attitude, responsibility, equity and safety are at the heart of everything we do.
"Our achievements over the past year would not have been possible without the hard work of our staff who are the lifeblood of the organisation. The Trust also benefits from the support of our Governors who have an increasingly important role at the Trust, and our volunteers and charity workers who play a crucial role in fundraising and supporting patients and staff on the Hillingdon and Mount Vernon Hospital sites. It is thanks to the dedication of all of these people that thousands of patients are cared for and services maintained and improved each year.
"What our patients tell us about their experiences in our Hospitals helps us to recognise, shape and where necessary, improve on the care we deliver. The Friends and Family Test gives us an indication of how many patients would recommend the hospital as a place to be treated. With 619 inpatients asked in May, 179 stated that they would be likely and 379 said that they would be extremely likely to recommend the ward to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment.
"The views of our own staff also provide a good measure about how the Trust is performing. It was therefore pleasing to read, in the 2012 NHS annual staff survey, that 86 per cent of our staff would recommend the Trust as a place to work or receive treatment, which was the highest score in London for this question.
