Maintaining standards through tougher times

The Trust is striving to maintain exemplary patient care, efficiency, and productivity standards, while simultaneously ensuring that all staff understand what is expected of them, and challenging conventional employment terms and conditions “to root out underperformers”. As HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports, his presentation was followed by a broader look at the challenges facing a large NHS acute Trust as the service gears up for the proposed new commissioning structure.

Mike Hall has worked in the NHS, mainly in the North West of England, for some 38 years, in a number of management positions. In his current-day role – as general manager, facilities, at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust – he heads up an estates and facilities team of 400. He began his address, at an appropriately themed event – given the radical changes that the Government has set out in its Health and Social Care Bill – “New order, new world” (held at Torquay’s Riviera International Conference Centre), by explaining that the Trust is one of England’s highest performing. This, he told delegates, was in large part due to its senior management’s ability to “never fail to admit mistakes”, and equally to learn from any “bad experiences” and take prompt steps to put things right when “bad events” occurred. Beginning, however, with some background data, he explained that Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust is a large teaching hospital Trust and community services provider which employs over 6,000 staff, and treats around 400,000 patients annually. It provides a comprehensive range of hospital and community services to the 220,000 population of Salford, plus a wider spectrum of services across Greater Manchester, the North West or England, and nationally.

 £200 million investment