Company Report: The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
Care for the community A first wave Foundation Trust , Rotherham General Hospital has continued to build on its reputation for medical excellence. Exec Digital learns more about this progressive hospital

Since opening in 1978, Rotherham General Hospital has gained a reputation as a high performing institution. In 2005, it achieved Foundation Trust status. A brief history of the hospital will tell you that its three-phase development was completed towards the end of 1994, although it underwent a refurbishment in 1999 in partnership with the private sector.

Business Development Director Mike Pinkerton believes that becoming a Foundation Trust was a significant development: "The Foundation Trust status has given us the platform to innovate, to develop our services, to actually introduce a new business model."

A new lease of life

And Rotherham Hospital is certainly benefitting from this new lease of life, as Pinkerton will attest. As part of its application to become an Foundation Trust, the hospital set out a service development strategy which prioritised waiting times and involvement of staff.

"In the last national patient opinion survey, Rotherham Foundation Trust was voted the No. 1 Trust in the country for patient access," he says. "That in itself has encouraged more and more patients to choose us for their secondary care services; our referrals have been growing from outside areas by 15-20 percent each year.

"To cope with that demand, we've improved the efficiency of our processes," Pinkerton adds. "We're one of the top 25 Trusts in terms of day surgery rates - up to 85 percent of our surgery is being done on a day case basis."

Reaping the rewards

But the recognition doesn't stop there. More recently, Rotherham General celebrated its Annual Health Check ratings, for which the Healthcare Commission scored it a double 'excellent'. This has placed the institution in the top 11 percent of the 391 NHS Trusts in England.

Pinkerton attributes the outstanding results to the hard efforts and diligence of the Hospital's staff. "It does, I think, at least reflect some very significant progress for the Trust, and it should hopefully give confidence to the patients," he adds. Increasingly, the Trust is working with the local community to make its services more widely available. As part of this strategy, the Trust has won several contracts to develop community services.

Work in the community - a prime concern
Pinkerton believes that the best example of Rotherham General's work in the community is its musculo-skeletal interface service. Working in conjunction with Sheffield's Primary Care Trust, the service provides an interface between the GPs and other professionals.

"That service adds value by making sure the patients go to the right professional first time, but also facilitates patients' choice," Pinkerton explains.

It seems that the patient is top of Rotherham Hospital's agenda - as it should be of course. However, with so many scare stories about patient care and MRSA-related fatalities, it is unusual, and somewhat refreshing, to hear when a hospital is doing its job properly.

"We're very proud that we now have the lowest MRSA rate of any adult acute hospital in Yorkshire and Humber," says Pinkerton. "We were recently congratulated by David Nicholson, the Chief Executive of the NHS, on a recent visit with regards to our approach to hospital-acquired infection."

Best in practice

Such praise reflects the hospital's observance of the hygiene code and saving lives audit. "We have a very well-developed control of infection team, whose role is to educate, support and train staff in adopting and deploying best practice in control of infection.

"We also very strictly audit our compliance with best practice in this area, and that's reported throughout the organisation and also regularly at board level; so we're clear about where we're making progress and where we need to do more," he adds.

Adhering to best practice so religiously has paid off for Rotherham Hospital and the local population. Funding has certainly helped the district hospital to achieve and maintain high standards but how will it continue to cope in the recession? Won't funding dry up?

Pinkerton is on-hand to reassure its patients: "The NHS is sticking to its broad financial plans over the next two years, but in the second year, more efficiency will be required from the centre. We see high quality care as being efficient care, so aim to use this pressure positively, but we have to give the staff the tools and environment to deliver that aim.

"The tariff is changing to reflect quality and patient outcomes, rather than simply operations and procedures conducted," he adds.

Investing in your future; reinvesting in services

Being a Foundation Trust, Rotherham General can use any surpluses generated by the Trust and reinvest them back into its services. Recognising that the hospital is now about 30 years old, and despite continual updating, Pinkerton admits that some more serious refurbishments are required.

"We're in the middle of sourcing a principal supply chain partner under the Department of Health's Procure 21 program," he says, adding that this process will be a £58 million investment over the next 10 years.

Ambitious plans that don't stop there

"We're very close to approving an approach to implement an electronic patient record system, which is part of our aim to become the UK's first paperless hospital by 2012," Pinkerton reveals.

The Hospital aims to procure an existing electronic patient record system from the open market, as opposed to working directly through the national program for IT. He explains that, at some point, this system will become a feature across the NHS but that Rotherham has worked hard to be in the position where those benefits are available to it now.

Judging by Rotherham Hospital's continued dedication to its work and the drive it demonstrates in doing so, it seems that its employees thrive on providing their patients with a superior level of care and attention.

"Without at all being complacent in any way, we do feel we're preparing reasonably well for the future," says Pinkerton. "We do hope more patients will choose to come to Rotherham but we also want to bring Rotherham to the patients as well by progressively developing our services inside and outside the hospital."

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