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Annual report 20-21

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2020/21 Incorporating the quality report University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 Presented to Parliament pursuant to Schedule 7, paragraph 25(4)(a) of the National Health Service Act 2006 © 2021 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Table of contents Welcome from our chair and chief executive 6 Overview and performance 8 Performance report 9 Overview 10 Accountability report 29 Directors’ report 30 Remuneration report 53 Staff report 65 NHS Foundation Trust Code of Governance 81 NHS Oversight Framework 81 Annual governance statement 84 Quality report 95 Statement on quality from the chief executive 96 Priorities for improvement and statements of assurance from the board 99 Other information 153 Annual accounts 180 Statement from the chief financial officer 181 Auditor’s report 182 Foreword to the accounts 188 Statement of Comprehensive Income 189 Statement of Financial Position 190 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 191 Statement of Cash Flows 192 Notes to the accounts 193 5 Welcome from our chair and chief executive 2020/21 was undoubtedly the most challenging year in the history of the NHS, and we have felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic here at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) in full. Responding to this has meant there isn’t a single part of our organisation that hasn’t changed in some way over the last year and we have all had to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Our staff have been unwavering in their dedication, hard work and commitment to keeping our hospitals running, our patients cared for, and their colleagues supported. Every single member of the UHS family has played their part. The loss of life from COVID-19 has been devastating, and at UHS we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone affected by this tragedy, including the families of staff members whom we lost. We must recognise the incredible work of Southampton Hospital Charity, which has funded boost boxes, wellness rooms, a helpline and so much more to support staff at a time when their wellbeing is more important than ever. As the nationwide vaccination programme continues to offer hope of life more like pre-pandemic times, we are proud to have been at the forefront of these efforts - from being part of early research for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, to the opening of one of the largest vaccination hubs in the region on our site in December 2020. We will continue to play a key role in vaccination development by leading the world’s first clinical trial into the effectiveness of COVID-19 booster vaccines, as well as taking part in a study involving pregnant people. Our response to COVID-19 has prompted innovation and new ways of working across the Trust, to the benefit of patient experience. At the start of the pandemic we faced real challenges of capacity and increases in waiting times, which led to us working with Spire Southampton so cancer treatment and surgery could continue for patients at highest risk. We also increased the number of outpatient attendances which took place by telephone or video call, and our patient support hub was set up to provide a single point of support for patients who had been advised to shield. We are immensely proud of the record of the Trust during the pandemic, exemplified by the number of patients we were able to take into our care from well outside the local area. The Trust is in a strong financial position as a result of careful spending and efficiencies, which has allowed us to invest significantly in upgrading our estate. These improvements have seen the opening of the general intensive care unit, and the new cancer ward, which was built in just six months. These formed part of overall capital expenditure of £80 million during the year. The last year has seen us say goodbye to two members of our executive leadership team. Paula Head left the chief executive officer role in November to join the national response to COVID-19, before becoming a senior fellow at The King’s Fund. Derek Sandeman moved on from being our chief medical officer to take the same position at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System. We are grateful to both for their efforts on the Trust leadership team during the most challenging of years. One of our non-executive directors, Jenni Douglas-Todd, also left the Trust to take on the important role of director of equality and inclusion with NHS England and NHS Improvement. 6 Looking ahead to the future, UHS will play a key role in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System. Our commitment is to deliver services with partners through clinical networks, collaboration and integration across geographical and organisational boundaries for seamless patient care. We as a Trust board are looking forward to implementing our own five year strategy, which sets out ambitions for what we want the hospital to be in 2025, for both patients and staff. Our focus will always be on enabling world class people to deliver world class care. Peter Hollins David French Chair Chief Executive Officer 7 OVERVIEW AND PERFORMANCE Performance report Introduction from our chief executive Over the last year, the way in which the Trust has worked and performance it has achieved, has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. • UHS saw a number of large surges in demand for inpatient care, and for intensive respiratory support in particular, due to COVID-19 infection rates. Our capacity to deliver intensive care had to be increased, and many of our staff moved from other services such as our elective theatres in order to meet this need for care. • We have introduced and continue to maintain a number of changes to reduce the risk of COVID-19 being transmitted, or adversely affecting patient outcomes, within the Trust. Changes have included the wearing of additional personal protective equipment by our staff (especially when caring for patients who might have COVID-19 or undertaking higher risk procedures), reducing the number of patients coming to our outpatient departments and increasing the number of telephone and video consultations, separating elective and emergency patients within our departments and regular testing of our staff and all patients on or prior to their admission to hospital for treatment. • Public concerns about safety, government restrictions and the efforts of community services actually contributed to reductions in the total number of patients who sought hospital care this year. • Treatment plans have been modified by a number of services, in partnership with patients, to reduce the risk posed by COVID-19 to those patients. This was often appropriate in those circumstances in which the normal treatment would significantly reduce the patient’s own resistance to infections. Our performance has, in many cases, been strongly influenced by these profound changes. We have responded well to the need to provide the most urgent care, and the adverse impacts on elective care have been slightly less than the average across the NHS. However, we remain very concerned by the significant increase in the numbers of patients waiting longer than they should for elective care. It will take concerted and sustained action within both the Trust and the wider NHS in order to return elective performance to levels achieved before the pandemic whilst also continuing to meet urgent care needs as the restrictions that have been implemented within our society are progressively relaxed. 9 Overview About the Trust Our services University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in England with a turnover of more than £1 billion in 2020/21. It is based on the coast in south east England and provides services to over 1.9 million people living in Southampton and south Hampshire and specialist services, including neurosciences, respiratory medicine, cancer care, cardiovascular, obstetrics and specialist children’s services, to more than 3.7 million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands. The Trust is also a designated major trauma centre, one of only two places in the south of England to offer adults and children full major trauma care provision. As a leading centre for teaching and research, the Trust has close working relationships with the University of Southampton, the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK. UHS is consistently one of the UK’s highest recruiting trusts of patients to clinical trials and in the top ten nationally for research study volume as ranked by the NIHR Clinical Research Network. 12,000 Every year over staff at UHS: treat around 160,000 inpatients and day patients, including about 75,000 emergency admissions see over 650,000 people at outpatient appointments deal with around 150,000 cases in our emergency department deliver more than 100 outpatient clinics across the south of England, keeping services local for patients The Trust provides most of its services from the following locations: • Southampton General Hospital – the Trust’s largest location, where a great number of specialist services are based alongside emergency and critical care and which includes Southampton Children’s Hospital. • Princess Anne Hospital – located across the road from Southampton General Hospital and providing maternity care and specialist care for women with medical problems during pregnancy and babies who need extra care around birth across the region. • Royal South Hants Hospital – although the Trust does not operate this site near the centre of Southampton it provides a smaller number of services from this location. • New Forest Birth Centre – located at Ashurst on the edge of the New Forest and run by experienced midwives and support staff it offers a safe, ‘home away from home’ environment for women having a healthy pregnancy and expecting a straightforward birth. The services provided by the Trust are commissioned and paid for by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and, in the case of more specialised services (such as treatments for rare conditions), by NHS England. Over 50% of UHS services are paid for by CCGs and approximately 48% by NHS England. We provide these under a standard NHS contract, which incorporates ongoing monitoring of the Trust and the quality of the services provided. 10 Our structure UHS gained foundation trust status on 1 October 2011. A foundation trust is a public benefit corporation providing NHS services in line with the core NHS principles: that care should be universal, comprehensive and free at the point of need. The Trust is licensed as a foundation trust to provide these services by Monitor (the independent regulator, now part of NHS England and NHS Improvement) and the healthcare services we provide are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. Being a foundation trust has enabled greater local accountability and greater financial freedom and has supported the delivery of the Trust’s mission and strategy over a number of years. The diagram below provides an overview of the overall organisational structure of the Trust. Public and foundation trust members Council of Governors Board of Directors Executive Directors Division A Surgery Critical Care Opthalmology Theatres and Anaesthetics Division B Division C Cancer Care Emergency Medicine Helicopter Emergency Medical Services Medicine and Medicine for Older People Pathology Specialist Medicine Women and Newborn Maternity Child Health Clinical Support Division D Trust Headquarters Division Cardiovascular and Thoracic Neurosciences Trauma and Orthopaedics Radiology Corporate Affairs Communications Estates, Facilities and Capital Development Finance Human Resources Informatics Patient Support Services Procurement and Supply Transformation and Improvement (‘Always Improving’) Research and Development Strategy and Business Development 11 The Trust is also part of an integrated care system in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which is a partnership of NHS and local government organisations working together to improve the health and wellbeing of the population across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Our values Our values describe how we do things at UHS and act as a guide to all staff working with colleagues to deliver high quality patient care and a great patient experience every day. Our values are: Patients, their families and carers are at the heart of what we do. Their experience of our services will be our measure of success. Partnership between clinicians, patients and carers is critical to achieving our vision, both within hospital teams and extending across organisational boundaries in the NHS, social care and the third sector. We will ensure we are always improving services for patients through research, education, clinical effectiveness and quality improvement. We will continue to incorporate new ideas, technologies and create greater efficiencies in the services we provide. 12 Our strategy 2021-25 The Trust’s strategy was updated during 2020/2021 to take account of everything our staff had experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what we had learnt from this. The vision for UHS is to continue on its journey to become an organisation of world class people delivering world class care. Our strategy is organised around five themes and for each of these describes a number ambitions we aim to achieve by 2025. Theme Ambitions Outstanding patient outcomes, • We will monitor clinical outcomes, safety and experience of our experience and safety patients regularly to ensure they are amongst the best in the UK By 2025 we will strengthen our and the world. national reputation for outstanding • We will reduce harm, learning from all incidents through our patient outcomes, experience and proactive patient safety culture. safety, providing high quality care • We will ensure all patients and relatives have a positive experience and treatment across an extensive of our care, as a result of the environment created by our people range of services from foetal and our facilities. medicine, through all life stages and conditions, to end-of-life care. Pioneering research • We will recruit and enable people to deliver pioneering research and innovation in Southampton. We will continue to be a leading teaching hospital with a growing, reputable and innovative research and development portfolio • We will optimise access to clinical research studies for our patients. • We will enable innovation in everything we do, and ensure that ‘cutting edge’ investigations and treatments are delivered in Southampton. that attracts the best staff and efficiently delivers the best possible treatments and care for our patients. World class people • We will recruit and develop enough people with the right Supporting and nurturing our knowledge and skills to meet the needs of our patients. people through a culture that values • We will provide satisfying and fulfilling roles, growing our talent diversity and builds knowledge and through development and opportunity for progression. skills to ensure everyone reaches • We will empower our people, embracing diversity and embedding their full potential. We must provide compassion, inclusion and equity of opportunity. rewarding career paths within empowered, compassionate, and motivated teams. Integrated networks and collaboration We will deliver our services with partners through clinical networks, collaboration and integration across geographical and organisational boundaries. • We will work in partnership with key stakeholders across the Hampshire and Isle of Wight integrated care system. • We will strengthen our acute clinical networks across the region, centralising when necessary and supporting local care when appropriate. • We will foster local integration with primary and community care as well as mental health and social care services for seamless delivery across boundaries. • We will build on our successful partnership with University of Southampton (UoS), growing our reputation as a national leading university teaching hospital. 13 Theme Foundations for the future Making our enabling infrastructure (finance, digital, estate) fit for the future to support a leading university teaching hospital in the 21st century and recognising our responsibility as a major employer in the community of Southampton and our role in broader environmental sustainability. Ambitions • We will deliver best value to the tax payer as a financially efficient and sustainable organisation. • We will support patient self-management and seamless care across organisational boundaries through our ambitious digital programme, including real time data reporting, to inform our care. • We will expand and improve our estate, increasing capacity where needed and providing modern facilities for our patients and our people. • We will strengthen our role in the community as an employer of choice, a partner in delivery of services to our population and by leading the Greener NHS agenda locally. During each year of the strategy the Trust will set out a more detailed series of objectives to achieve and progress towards the delivery of its ambitions. In 2020/21 these objectives included: • Recovery, restoration and improvement of clinical services • Implementing the ‘Always Improving’ strategy • Restoring a full research portfolio • Continuing our focus on staff wellbeing including the long-term effects of coronavirus (long COVID) • Working in partnership with the newly established integrated care system • Creating a sustainable financial infrastructure • Making our corporate infrastructure (digital, estate) fit for the future to support a leading university teaching hospital in the 21st century, including an estates masterplan. Performance against these objectives will be monitored and reported to the Trust’s board of directors on a quarterly basis. Principal risks to our strategy and objectives The board of directors has identified and manages the principal risks to the delivery of its strategy and objectives through its board assurance framework. The principal risks to the delivery of its strategy and objectives identified by the Trust during 2020/21 were that: • it would be unable to form effective partnerships that achieve networked care for patients; • it could not develop the estate in line with the ambitions set out in the strategy; • it would fail to restore and increase capacity following the COVID-19 pandemic to meet waiting times for elective care and cancer care needs; • it would fail to introduce and implement new technology for the transformation of care; • it would be unable to retain, recruit, develop and train a diverse and inclusive workforce necessary to meet the strategic goals; • it could not develop a sustainable model within the new financial regime that preserves quality care; • it would fail to provide vulnerable service users with timely and high quality and appropriate care; • it would not reach the ambition of outstanding compliance and quality standards; • it could not sufficiently engage with key stakeholders and system partners to support effective interventions and maintain the health of the local population; • it would be unable to respond to the needs of the NHS in order to deliver our strategy; • it would fail to capitalise on its relationship with the universities in Southampton and other health education providers in line with our strategy; • it would not develop innovative education and training approaches. 14 While the COVID-19 pandemic presented the Trust with new risks as it introduced more stringent infection control processes, stopped certain types of activity and responded quickly to care for large numbers of seriously ill patients who had tested positive for COVID-19, it also prompted innovation across a wide range of areas. However the ongoing impact of the pandemic on both our staff, patients who have had COVID-19 and patients who have waited longer than expected for treatment as a result, added to the risks facing the Trust. National targets for performance have not been amended as a result of the pandemic, although the national plan has focussed on the recovery of activity levels as the first stage in a restoration of elective services. Capacity – The initial and subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increases in the waiting times for patients and the number of patients waiting more than 52 and 78 weeks has increased significantly. While the Trust was able to recover capacity quickly between waves of the pandemic, its ability to reduce the overall waiting list and the length of time patients are waiting for treatment remains one of the key risks for the Trust. This may be compounded by the reduction in the number of referrals from GPs during the pandemic, leading to a potential future increase in the number of patients being referred as people visit their GPs for the first time with more advanced disease. During the pandemic the Trust utilised the support available from the independent sector to continue cancer treatment and surgery for those patients at highest risk. It also increased the number of outpatient attendances which took place by telephone or video call. The Trust developed a clinical assurance framework during the year to better assess the risk of harm to patients as a result of delays in treatment and this has been utilised in decision-making around the allocation of resources to those areas where there is the greatest risk of potential harm to patients. In addition to opening additional capacity during 2020/21 (described in the Estates section below), the Trust also committed expenditure and commenced construction works in 2020/21 in order to be in a position to open an additional endoscopy room and four further operating theatres during 2021/22 and prepared plans for a significant expansion in ophthalmology outpatient capacity. These initiatives will contribute to improvements in elective waiting times that needed following the pandemic. Quality and compliance – The Trust continued to monitor the quality of care delivered throughout 2020/21. During the COVID-19 pandemic the primary focus became infection prevention and control, with the launch of a successful COVID ZERO campaign that saw the Trust reduce the transmission of the virus in hospital (nosocomial transmission). The Trust also achieved its annual target for reduction in Clostridium Difficile infections, however, there was one MRSA Bacteraemia during March 2021, the only such event in 2020/21. The Trust continued to develop its proactive patient safety culture during 2020/21 with changes to the way in which patient safety incidents are investigated and the approval of its Always Improving strategy, which will be launched in 2021. Reporting and investigation of incidents continued during 2020/21. Partnerships – During 2020/21, the Trust and its partners worked together very effectively to discharge patients safely and provide ongoing support to patients who had tested positive for COVID-19, to ensure patients requiring urgent cancer treatment and surgery were able to continue their treatment in the independent sector and to develop a COVID-19 saliva testing pilot with the University of Southampton and local authorities. Work to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, meant that as a system we were unable to progress the Hampshire and Isle of Wight strategic plan delivery at the pace we would have wanted or had set out to achieve, particularly the development of networks. Nonetheless the application for Hampshire and Isle of Wight to become an integrated care system was approved with effect from 1 April 2021. 15 Existing networks continued to develop and improve. The Trust also became the Wessex Cancer Surgical Hub during 2020 as a result of a national initiative with the aim of maximising the number of patients receiving curative surgery. Both the Wessex Cancer Alliance and the Trust ended the year as the second highest performing among their respective peers for cancer treatment. Workforce – While additional staff were recruited to specifically assist the Trust during the pandemic, the Trust continued to recruit nurses from overseas during 2020/21 meaning that the number of vacancies has reduced compared to the position prior to the pandemic. Changes to recruitment processes were approved in 2020/21 to improve the fairness, transparency and quality of these. The Trust also continued to work with its staff networks and specific focus groups to increase diversity in leadership roles. While workforce capacity continues to be one of the biggest challenges faced by the Trust, during 2020/21 our main focus has been on supporting our staff to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and providing both the tools and time to help staff recovery. We are incredibly proud of the way that staff responded to the pandemic and continue to recognise this in whatever ways we can, however, we also want to ensure that staff continue to be able to contribute to patient care at their best and want to stay and develop with the Trust. Technology was also used at levels not previously achieved to continue to deliver training to staff and enable staff to work from home where possible, ensuring a safer environment for patients and staff in the hospitals. Estate – The Trust continued to invest in and develop its estate during 2020/21 including the opening a new general intensive care unit (GICU), a new operating theatre and a new cancer care ward, built in just six months. These were part of £80 million of capital expenditure in 2020/21. The Trust has also established a programme to reduce backlog maintenance in addition to continuing to add to and improve the environment in which services are provided to patients and the working environment for staff. Innovation and technology – There have been exceptional levels of achievement in relation to COVID-19 related research activity, including in partnership with the universities. You can read more about these from page 167 of the quality report. The board of directors also supported the funding of an expansion of research and innovation activity to allow the continued delivery of the Trust’s ambitions to innovate and improve and transform its services. Sustainable financial model – The Trust achieved its forecast breakeven position in 2020/21. Income was more predictable in 2020/21 as block contract arrangements were put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured that costs were covered. The Trust continues to maintain a strong cash position and to implement improvements and efficiency savings, allowing it to continue to invest in its services. 16 Summary of performance COVID-19 bed occupancy UHS has experienced two distinct peaks in inpatient care for patients with COVID-19 infection, with smaller numbers of patients continuing to receive care outside these peak times. Bed occupancy reached a maximum of 173 in the first peak in April 2020, and 322 in the second peak in January 2021. All bed types Intensive care/higher care beds 17 Emergency access through our emergency and eye casualty departments Public concerns about safety, government restrictions on the activities people were able to do, and the efforts of community services contributed to significant reductions in the total number of patients who presented to our departments. All patients presenting to the emergency department Many changes were introduced within our departments in the course of the year to ensure that emergency assessment and treatment could be provided safely, including wearing of protective equipment by staff and patients, providing care in separate areas for patients suspected or known to have COVID-19, and using rapid laboratory tests to identify infection and confirm/exclude COVID-19 as a cause. Emergency access performance (measured as the percentage of patients discharged from emergency department care or admitted to a hospital bed within four hours of arrival to the department) improved significantly in 2020/21 compared to previous years. The national target of 95% was not achieved, however, the performance of our departments compared favourably with the average for acute trusts in England. 18 Emergency access four hour performance 19 Elective Waiting times Demand We saw a significant reduction in the number of elective referrals to hospital in the early part 2020/21, though they had returned close to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. It is likely that this pattern relates to a range of factors including reluctance from members of the public to attend healthcare facilities at that time, changes to the ways in which primary care was accessed, and efforts made within primary and community to avoid hospital referrals needing to be made. Accepted referrals The number of patients referred to hospital with suspected cancer also reduced during 2020/21; 7% fewer patients were seen across the year as a whole, though referrals returned to pre-pandemic levels or higher from July 2020 onwards. Patients seen following ‘Two week wait’ urgent referral for suspected cancer 20 Activity UHS hospital appointments, diagnostic tests and elective admissions were all significantly reduced during 2020/21 due to the impact of COVID-19. • During periods of higher bed occupancy with COVID-19 it was necessary to significantly reduce the number of elective admissions undertaken in order that additional staff could work in intensive care. Less clinically urgent and therefore longer waiting patients were primarily those affected. • Throughout the year, additional infection prevention measures have reduced the number of patients that can be seen in each session, particularly when higher risk ‘aerosol generating’ procedures are planned, but also as a result of additional PPE being worn or to enable greater distancing of patients attending outpatient departments. UHS was offered additional capacity at local independent sector hospitals and used this effectively to minimise these adverse impacts. Approximately 30% of outpatient appointments are now undertaken by telephone or video, helping to maintain the capacity for patient care whilst reducing the infection risk for those patients and helping to maintain distancing measures for those patients still attending our outpatient departments. The graphs below show 2020/21 activity levels as a percentage of those achieved in the previous year. Elective admissions (including daycase) 21 Outpatient attendances Performance The average waiting time for first outpatient appointments has remained close to nine weeks for the majority of the year. UHS has however experienced very significant deteriorations in the waiting times our patients experience for diagnostic tests to be undertaken and elective treatment to be provided. The reduced number of new patients referred to hospital early in 2020/21 has moderated the extent of the growth in the total numbers of patients waiting, and the greatest rate of growth has unfortunately been amongst those groups of patients already waiting longest. 22 Diagnostics Our performance measures for diagnostics report on a total of 15 different frequently used tests. The waiting list is approximately 50% bigger than it was before the pandemic and stable through the second half of the year. At the end of the year 28% of patients were waiting more than six weeks to receive their investigation compared to the national target of 1%. The tests with the largest numbers of longer waiting patients include non-obstetric ultrasound, MRI and endoscopies, and further recovery will be driven through a combination of recruitment, independent sector capacity and an additional endoscopy room which opened at the start of April 2021. Patients waiting for a diagnostic test to be performed (sum of 15 different frequently used tests) Percentage of patients waiting over 6 weeks for a diagnostic test to be performed 23 Referral to Treatment Our waiting list from referral to treatment increased in size by 6% (2,220 patients) during 2020/21, rising when the recovery in referral numbers exceeded the recovery in clinical activity, the total increase in waiting list size would have been significantly higher had it not been for the significant reduction in the referrals received by the hospital especially during the early months of the pandemic. Looking forward, we anticipate referrals numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels, and being able to maintain the total size of our waiting list by delivering an equivalent number of treatments each month. Number of patients waiting between referral and commencement of a treatment for their condition The national target is that at least 92% of patients should be waiting for treatment no more than 18 weeks from their referral to hospital. Our performance against this measure is now 12% worse than one year ago, at 66%. Our performance continues to be typical of the major teaching hospital trusts that we benchmark with and the trend has been similar to that experienced across trusts in England. Percentage of patients waiting up to 18 weeks between referral and treatment 24 Unfortunately, the number of patients waiting significantly longer than the 18 week target has increased at a faster rate than the size of the waiting list as a whole. The graph below shows how the percentage of patients who have waited more 52 weeks increased. The number of patients who have waited more 52 weeks increased from 40 in March 2020 to 3,419 by March 2021 (of these 445 patients had waited more than 78 weeks). Such patients often require surgical treatment, particularly in the orthopaedic, ear nose and throat and oral surgery specialities. The impact on surgical care has been greater than that in outpatients during the pandemic, and it is also more challenging to increase capacity due to the need for additional operating theatres and a combination of different healthcare professionals to work within them. UHS opened an additional operating theatre in 2020/21, and has a further four theatres scheduled to open during 2021/22, which will make a significant contribution to our capacity to treat more patients. Unfortunately, the number of patients waiting significantly longer than the 18 week target is likely to continue to grow further in the short term, due to diagnostic investigations having been progressed less quickly than usual during the pandemic, the need to prioritise our increased treatment capacity according to the clinical urgency of conditions and because our scheduled capacity increases will not be completed before the autumn of 2021. Percentage of patients waiting more than 52 weeks, between referral and commencement of a treatment for their condition 25 Cancer Waiting Times UHS has been mostly successful in maintaining the timeliness of urgent services for patients with suspected cancer through the pandemic, and our performance has been amongst the best in both the south-east and nationally. UHS prioritised the theatre and intensive care capacity we were able to provide during the pandemic in order to meet the needs of those patients with the greatest clinical urgency, used capacity offered by independent sector hospitals to supplement that available within NHS, and operated a hub through which hospitals in Wessex were able to collaborate to continue critical cancer surgery during periods of peak COVID-19 demand. The national target is to provide the first definitive treatment to at least 85% of patients with cancer with 62 days of referral to hospital. Whilst UHS performance remained below this level in the majority of months, our performance has been significantly better than the national average, and has improved relative to other trusts. Treatment for Cancer within 62 days of an urgent GP referral to hospital 26 The national target is to provide the first definitive treatment to at least 96% of patients within 31 days of a decision to treat being made and agreed with the patients; both for the first and any subsequent treatments for cancer. UHS achieved this level on average across the year, and in the majority of months. The treatments provided are typically by means of surgery, chemotherapy/immunotherapy or radiotherapy. The most significant performance challenge this year has been in radiotherapy, where more sophisticated treatment plans improve patient outcomes but take longer to prepare, and there was also reduced treatment capacity whilst we replaced one of our ‘Linear Accelerator’ treatment machines with a new model. First definitive treatment for cancer within 31 days of a decision to treat Equality in service delivery Identifying and addressing health inequalities have been the central part of the Trust’s approach to improving the experience of care for our patients, families and carers. Over the past year, new initiatives have augmented progress on existing work to ensure there is appropriate support, due regard and recognition of those patients and their families and carers who are most at risk of poor experiences, outcomes and access to services. In 2020 we added two questions to our patient surveys, asking first if patients felt themselves to have a disability or require a reasonable adjustment, and, if yes, whether the Trust met this need. In 2020/21, the results were: TOTAL Had a disability / required a reasonable adjustment 27% Had this need met by the Trust (positive response) 95% This question was added to our major Friends and Family Test surveys as well as our local service-specific patient surveys. In June 2020 the Trust launched the sunflower lanyard scheme for hidden disabilities, participating in the national initiative to ensure that people whose disabilities are not visible are able to access further support and reasonable adjustments by means of a nationally recognised indicator (the sunflower). In 2020/21, 618 lanyards were issued with those needs recorded to ensure future reasonable adjustments are made for those individuals. 27 Carers have always been essential partners in the care that we provide, and having introduced a new post at the end of 2019 to focus solely on carer experience, this work has culminated in a Trust strategy for improving the involvement, support and experience carers have of our services. We have, over the past year, introduced carers cards, virtual peer support and carer-specific information about services while actively participating in local and regional work on carers. In January 2021 we realised our ambition of becoming an accredited ‘Veterans Aware’ hospital, with our submission of evidence being recognised as ‘strong’ and indicative of an organisation that has made great progress in helping to provide enhanced support for the armed forces community. Towards the end of 2019 we worked with the disability organisation AccessAble to produce accessibility guides for all of our services and estate. These online guides allow patients and visitors with disabilities to plan their journey and identify potential challenges to the environment. In 2020/21 our guides had 5,000 unique visits per month. One of our COVID-19 initiatives, a patient support hub, was set up in May 2020 to provide a single point of support for our patients who had been advised to shield. The service has grown and now offers support to patients and carers who are vulnerable, disabled or with additional needs. This includes coordinating community transport, arranging companions to assist with attending appointments, hosting a technology library to support those who are digitally excluded in accessing virtual appointments and information, and most recently receiving funding to pilot volunteer-led support for diabetes patients. Across the Trust, we continue to actively promote the importance of asking patients and carers about disabilities and reasonable adjustments, flagging needs on our patient administrative system to prompt our services to take proactive steps to ensure that any needs or adjustments are met on each and every visit. This has been of vital importance for meeting accessible information and communication needs. We are currently one of first trusts to pilot a new translation app that provides immediate interpretation into different languages, and we have worked closely with our communication support partners to ensure that where virtual appointments are needed, people with communication needs (BSL, foreign language) are supported to access care virtually. Our specialist nursing liaison teams continued to support access to services throughout the pandemic, ensuring that patients with dementia, with learning disabilities and autism, were supported to attend hospital where necessary. Further information about the Trust’s work in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion can be found on page 69 and pages 106 and 160 in the quality report. Going concern After making enquiries, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the services provided by the Trust will continue to be provided by the public sector for the foreseeable future. For this reason, the directors have adopted the going concern basis in preparing the accounts, following the definition of going concern in the public sector adopted by HM Treasury’s Financial Reporting Manual. David French Chief Executive Officer 28 June 2021 28 Accountability report Directors’ report Board of directors The board of directors is usually made up of six executive directors and seven non-executive directors, including the chair. Since 1 January 2021 the number of non-executive directors has been reduced by one as Jane Bailey’s reappointment as a non-executive director was deferred to allow her to lead the Hampshire and Isle of Wight saliva mass testing programme. Jane is expected to return to the board of directors in her non-executive director role by 1 July 2021. Paragraph B.1.2 of the NHS foundation trust code of governance provides that at least half the board of directors, excluding the chair, should comprise non-executive directors determined by the board to be independent. Pending the reappointment of Jane Bailey as a non-executive director, the Trust has been operating with one fewer non-executive directors than is required by the Trust’s constitution and the Trust has been non-compliant with this paragraph of the code. During this period the provisions of the Trust’s constitution that a quorum for meetings of the board of directors requires at least one non-executive director and one executive director to be present and for the chair to have a second and casting vote in the case of an equal vote continued to apply. The board of directors has given careful consideration to the range of skills and experience it requires to run the Trust. Together the members of the board of directors bring a wide range of skills and experience to the Trust, such that the Board achieves balance and completeness at the highest level. The chair was determined to be independent on his appointment and the other non-executive directors have been determined to be independent in both character and judgement. This included specific consideration of Jane Bailey’s continued independence following her role leading the Hampshire and Isle of Wight saliva mass testing programme. The chair, executive directors and non-executive directors have declared any business interests that they have. Each director has declared their interests at public meetings of the board of directors. The register of interests is available on the Trust’s website. 30 The current members of the board of directors are: Non-executive directors Peter Hollins Chair Peter graduated in chemistry from Hertford College, Oxford. Joining Imperial Chemical Industries in 1973, he undertook a series of increasingly senior roles in marketing and then general management. Following three years in the Netherlands as general manager of ICI Resins BV, in 1992 he was appointed as chief operating officer of EVC in Brussels – a joint venture between ICI and Enichem of Italy. He played a key role in the flotation of the company in 1994, before returning in 1998 to the UK as chief executive officer of British Energy where he remained until 2001. From 2001, he held various chairmanships and non-executive directorships. In 2003, he decided to return to an executive role as chief executive of the British Heart Foundation in which post he remained until retirement in March 2013. He joined Southampton University Hospital Trust as a non-executive director in 2010, became senior independent director and deputy chairman of UHS in 2014 and was appointed chair in April 2016. Trust roles: • Chair of remuneration and appointment committee • Chair of governors’ nomination committee Jane Bailey Non-executive director In 1985, Jane joined the pharmaceutical company Glaxo as a management trainee, having graduated from London University with a degree in environmental science and pharmacology. Here she rose to senior commercial vice-president, gaining experience of a broad range of disease areas across different regions of the world. She specialised in leading global research and development teams in the formation of strategies to bring new medicines to patients. She also worked to ensure that the medicines developed were supported by robust evidence demonstrating their clinical and cost-effectiveness. In delivering this she gained extensive experience of leading large diverse teams across a complex global organisation. For five years, Jane ran her own strategy development consultancy, working across a breadth of healthcare organisations. In 2017 Jane gained an MSc in public health, with distinction, at King’s College, London University. Her studies focused on how to ensure the public are engaged in development of healthcare services and how social theories can help inform effective disease prevention and management. Jane is a director of Wessex NHS Procurement Limited, a joint venture between the Trust and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a director of Healthwatch Portsmouth. Trust roles: • Deputy chair and senior independent director • Chair of finance and investment committee • Audit and risk committee member • Charitable funds committee member • People and organisational development committee member • Remuneration and appointment committee member • Wellbeing Guardian 31 Non-executive directors Dave Bennett Non-executive director Dave graduated in chemistry from the University of Southampton before entering management consulting, becoming a partner in Accenture’s strategy practice. In 2003 he joined Exel Logistics (later acquired by DHL), managing the company’s healthcare business across Europe and the Middle East. During this time, he established NHS Supply Chain, a UK organisation responsible for procuring and delivering medical consumables for the NHS in England, as well as sourcing capital equipment. Dave joined the board of Cable & Wireless as sales director in 2008. He later set up his own strategy consulting practice serving the healthcare sector, completing numerous projects in the UK and the US. Dave has also served as a non-executive director at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 2009 and 2016, where he chaired the Trust’s quality committee. Dave is a non-executive director at the Faculty of Leadership and Medical Management and a director of Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Enterprises Ltd and RCGP Conferences Ltd. Trust roles: • Chair of charitable funds committee • Chair of finance and investment committee (from 1 January 2021) • Audit and risk committee member (from 9 February 2021) • Quality committee member • Remuneration and appointment committee member • Chair of Trust’s organ donation committee 32 Non-executive directors Cyrus Cooper Non-executive director Cyrus Cooper is professor of rheumatology and director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit. He is also vice-dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Southampton and professor of epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics (rheumatology and musculoskeletal sciences, University of Oxford). He leads an internationally competitive programme of research into the epidemiology of musculoskeletal disorders, most notably osteoporosis. His key research contributions have been: • discovery of the developmental influences which contribute to the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture in late adulthood • demonstration that maternal vitamin D insufficiency is associated with sub-optimal bone mineral accrual in childhood • characterisation of the definition and incidence rates of vertebral fractures • leadership of large pragmatic randomised controlled trials of calcium and vitamin D supplementation in the elderly as immediate preventative strategies against hip fracture. He is president of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, chair of the BHF Project Grants Committee, an emeritus NIHR senior investigator, a director of The Rank Prize Funds and associate editor of Osteoporosis International. He has previously served as chairman of the Scientific Advisors Committee (International Osteoporosis Foundation), the MRC Population Health Sciences Research Network and the National Osteoporosis Society of Great Britain. He has also been president of the Bone Research Society of Great Britain and has worked on numerous Department of Health, European Community and World Health Organisation committees and working groups. Cyrus has published extensively on osteoporosis and rheumatic disorders and pioneered clinical studies on the developmental origins of peak bone mass. In 2015, he was awarded an OBE for services to medical research. Trust roles: • Quality committee member • Remunerati
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