Agenda item

9.1

The Sub-Committee received a report on Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Quality Strategy.

9.2

Present for this item were Jennifer Hill (Medical Director (Operations) and Angie Legge (Quality Director), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust.

9.3

Angie Legge said that the Quality Strategy was structured around safety, and the key principle was the need to engage better with the public.

9.4

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                Improvements for minority groups was not referenced in the strategy.  There was a need to engage with groups that hadn’t previously been contacted, to listen to them to find out what was required to make improvements, as quite often simple changes could be made to make a difference.  This was a draft strategy, and the Trust was aware that it needed to listen more.

·                A “what matters to you” conversation was held early on when planning discharge from hospital, the emphasis was on individual personal care.

·                With regard to friends and families, a lot more could be done by listening to them and lessons learned from those who had spent long periods of time in hospital and the impact on them and their families.  Perhaps by contacting former patients and families a couple of weeks after discharge when they have had time to reflect on their stay in hospital would be beneficial.

·                There was Central Data Collection Team driving the need for change.  Nurse recruitment levels were significantly better than they were three years ago, however delays in discharging patients from hospital beds placed added pressures on nurses, but it was hoped that winter pressures would ease which would help with the safety of all.

·                There was a need to identify in which areas were paperwork heavy, make changes to give staff more time to carry out other essential safety duties.

·                The strategy had been influenced by the first National Patient Safety Strategy which incorporated plans to implement the requirements of that Strategy to include and expand the role of Patient Safety Partners to support safety improvement programmes, strengthening how we manage and learn from incidents through implementing the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), and continuing to strengthen our safety culture.  Work was ongoing with Human Resources Team around training and making sure that the teaching was helpful and purposeful.  Sheffield was on course to ensure that all its staff were fully trained with regard to safety.

·                Training in Sheffield was much better, now back up to acceptable levels and this was regularly monitored, there had been a huge improvement in staff numbers.  Inpatient ward staffing levels had been up to speed but there was a need to address staffing levels and how incident pressures affected those working in A&E.

·                The Trust were always looking to see if what they were doing, they were doing it well and tuned into the National Safe Patients Network to ensure that it continuously improved patient safety and built on the foundations of a safer culture and safer working systems.

RESOLVED: That the Sub-Committee:-

(a)      thanked Jennifer Hill and Angie Legge for their contribution to the meeting; and

(b)      requested that a report on Patient Engagement be brought to a meeting of this Sub-Committee.