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UHS AR 22-23-6

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2022/23 Incorporating the quality account University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23 Presented to Parliament
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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
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/Media/UHS-website-2019/Docs/About-the-Trust/Annual-reports-and-quality-accounts/annual-report-20-21.pdf

UHS AR 23-24 Final

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2023/24 Incorporating the quality account University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24 Presented to Parliament pursuant to Schedule 7, paragraph 25(4)(a) of the National Health Service Act 2006 © 2024 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Contents Welcome from our chair and chief executive 6 Overview and performance 8 Performance report 9 Overview 10 Accountability report 37 Directors’ report 38 Remuneration report 62 Staff report 75 Annual governance statement 95 Quality account 111 Statement on quality from the chief executive 112 Priorities for improvement and statements of assurance from the board 115 Other information 180 Annual accounts 207 Statement from the chief financial officer 208 Auditor’s report 210 Foreword to the accounts 217 Statement of Comprehensive Income 218 Statement of Financial Position 219 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 220 Statement of Cash Flows 221 Notes to the accounts 222 5 Welcome from the Chair and Chief Executive Officer This has been another busy and undoubtedly challenging year across the NHS and UK health and social care system, and much of what has impacted the national picture has been reflected in the operational focuses and patient and people priorities for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (‘UHS’ or the ‘Trust’) over the last year. Meeting and continuing to overcome the challenges we have faced has required an organisation-wide team effort, and looking back at the successes we feel incredibly proud of the achievements of our 13,000 staff. Particular highlights include: • In the top ten in the country (7th) against government targets for elective recovery performance with 118% of activity compared with 2019. • Top-quartile performance against most performance metrics compared to similar sized teaching hospitals, including Emergency Department access, long-waiting patients on Referral to Treatment pathways, Diagnostics and Cancer performance. • Significant investment in new capacity through building new wards and theatres and refurbishing existing areas of the hospital. • Delivery of our highest ever Cost Improvement Programme saving. These achievements place us among the best performing trusts in England in several areas and are even more remarkable against a backdrop of continued periods of industrial action and increasing demand for our services, with many people coming to us with higher levels of acuity than ever before. The Trust’s performance in terms of elective recovery places it as one of the best-performing trusts in England and demonstrates the impact of the Trust’s decision to invest in additional capacity in prior years by building new wards and theatres. The Trust’s Emergency Department performance in respect of its four-hour waiting target at the end of March 2024 has attracted additional capital funding as part of an incentive scheme. Some of this funding will be used to increase the department’s same-day emergency care capacity during 2024/25. From a financial perspective, balancing the complexities of today’s challenges alongside the need to protect and ensure the long-term stability and quality of our service provision, has required the Board to take a number of considered and crucial efficiency improvement actions this year. Whilst challenging, the Trust has seen significant progress in delivering on both its forecasted finance position for 2023/24 and productivity targets. Achieving long-term financial stability is key to us continuing to invest in much needed upgrades and improvements to the parts of our estate that are ageing, and to developing new state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure that increases our capabilities and capacity into the future. In the last year parts of the hospital have been transformed, with the opening of new wards, theatres and a skybridge to link the estate. Construction of a sterile services and aseptics facility has begun at Adanac Park and the expansion of our neonatal department, where we treat and care for some of our most vulnerable babies and their families, is underway. The development of a new aseptic facility at Adanac Park will have capacity to serve other hospitals within the region and is a significant opportunity for improved system-wide working. 6 We have also worked with our people to design spaces where they can rest, relax and recharge - including a new wellbeing hub and rooftop garden on the Princess Anne Hospital site. In addition, 40 staff rooms across the site have been refurbished thanks to funding from Southampton Hospitals Charity. During the year, the Trust worked to establish the Southampton Hospitals Charity as a separate charitable company to improve its ability to both raise and spend funds. This process completed on 1 April 2024. Work was carried out to refurbish a children’s ward during the year in partnership with the charity. Our people are our greatest asset, and we are pleased to see improvements from the annual staff survey in several areas - such as how people can work more flexibly, access to learning and development and improved satisfaction in support from line managers. We recognise the pressures and demands that come with working in this environment and will continue to ensure everyone working here feels heard, encouraged and supported when raising concerns. At UHS, every opportunity is taken to recognise and celebrate the incredible things our people do here every day, including the return of our in-person annual awards ceremony, monthly staff recognition events and the first ever ‘We Are UHS Week’. These occasions are an important reminder that, even when faced with challenges, there is so much to be proud of and celebrate across the whole Trust. Working together, both within the Trust and across organisational boundaries, remains one of our core values. The partnership between UHS and the University of Southampton is as strong as it has ever been, with more than 250,000 individuals having now taken part in research studies in Southampton. As the lead partner member for Acute Hospital Services on the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, we are proactively working with other trusts and healthcare providers in the region to improve the health of the community we serve. In addition, the Trust has continued to work in partnership with other providers across the system to build a shared elective orthopaedic hub in Winchester. It is anticipated that the health and social care system will continue to be a challenging environment in 2024/25. We recognise that many of the big challenges we face can only be solved in partnership with wider local partners, and we are committed to actively playing our part in delivering system-wide solutions. Equally, we will continue to focus on improving whatever is within our internal control, and to work collaboratively with our people to ensure our patients’ experience, safety and outcomes remain central to our decision-making and the actions of everyone at UHS. Jenni Douglas-Todd Chair 19 July 2024 David French Chief Executive Officer 19 July 2024 7 PERFORMANCE REPORT Performance report Introduction from the Chief Executive Officer As with 2022/23, this was another challenging year with continued increasing demand for the Trust’s resources and the need to balance this with the need to deliver quality patient care and at the same time maintain a sustainable financial position. Demand for non-elective care continued to increase with an average of 375 attendances per day to our main Emergency Department. In addition, the number of patients on the 18-week Referral to Treatment pathway rose to 58,000. Patients having no clinical criteria to reside in hospital, but unable to be discharged due to the lack of funded care in a more suitable location, posed and continues to pose a significant challenge for the Trust. The number of patients within this category was as high as 270 at times and was consistently higher throughout the year when compared to 2022/23. Despite this the Trust continued to perform well when compared to other comparable organisations, achieving some of the best Emergency Department and elective recovery fund performance in England. The Trust’s financial position continued to be difficult, which required some difficult decisions in respect of spending controls and controls on recruitment. The Trust focused in particular on controlling spending on temporary and agency staff, but in view of the overall workforce numbers compared to the 2023/24 plan, further controls were implemented in respect of substantive recruitment. Due to the additional controls and the Trust’s best delivery to date on its Cost Improvement Programme (£63.4m), the Trust achieved an end of year deficit of £4.5m, compared to the deficit of £26m anticipated in its 2023/24 plan. 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 £1.3 billion in 2023/24. 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 nearly four 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 and Care Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK. The Trust is consistently one of the UK’s highest recruiting trusts of patients to clinical trials and one of the top nationally for research study volumes as ranked by the NIHR Clinical Research Network. Every year the Trust: treats around 155,000 inpatients and day patients, including about 70,000 emergency admissions sees over 750,000 people at outpatient appointments deals with around 150,000 cases in our emergency department 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 acts as a community midwifery hub. The services provided by the Trust are commissioned and paid for by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS) and, in the case of more specialised services (such as treatments for rare conditions), by NHS England. Trust services are supported by clinical income, of which 54% is paid for by NHS England and 43% by integrated care boards, predominantly the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (ICB). These are provided 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 NHS England and the healthcare services we provide are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. Since 1 July 2022, the Trust has been part of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System when this was established through the Health and Social Care Act 2022. Each ICS has two statutory elements: an integrated care partnership (ICP) and an integrated care board. The ICP is a statutory committee jointly formed between the NHS integrated care board and all upper-tier local authorities that fall within the ICS area. The ICP brings together a broad alliance of partners concerned with improving the care, health and wellbeing of the population, with membership determined locally. The ICP is responsible for producing an integrated care strategy on how to meet the health and wellbeing needs of the population in the ICS area. The ICB is a statutory NHS organisation responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of the population, managing the NHS budget and arranging for the provision of health services in the ICS area. The Trust has been a university teaching hospital since 1971. 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 Division B Division C Division D Surgery Critical Care Opthalmology Theatres and Anaesthetics 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 Cardiovascular and Thoracic Neurosciences Trauma and Orthopaedics Radiology Trust Headquarters Division 11 Our values The Trust’s values describe how things are done 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. These 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 2020/21 to take account of everything its staff had experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what had been learnt from this. The vision for UHS is to become an organisation of world class people delivering world class care. The Trust’s strategy is organised around five themes and for each of these it describes a number of ambitions UHS aims 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 in and innovation 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 taxpayer 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 sets out a more detailed series of objectives to achieve and progress towards the delivery of its ambitions. In 2023/24 these objectives included: Outstanding patient outcomes, experience and safety Pioneering research and innovation World class people Integrated networks and collaboration Foundations for the future • Increasing the number of reported Shared Decision-Making conversations. • Increasing the number of specialities reporting outcomes that matter to patients. • Rolling out the Patient Safety Incident Reporting Framework across the Trust. • Working with patients as partners to improve patient satisfaction. • Treating patients according to need but aiming for no patient to wait, other than through patient choice, more than 65 weeks for treatment. • Delivering national metrics for site set-up time to target for clinical research studies. • Improving the Trust’s position against peers. • Delivering year three of the Trust’s research and innovation investment plan. • Developing the five-year research and development strategy implementation plan and delivery of the first year. • Strengthening and broadening the partnership between the Trust and the University of Southampton. • Supporting delivery of the Trust’s workforce plan for 2023/24. • Reducing turnover and sickness absence rates. • Increasing overall participation in the NHS staff survey and maintaining overall staff engagement score. • Increasing the proportion of appraisals completed. • Delivering the first year objectives of the Inclusion and Belonging strategy. • Working in partnership with acute trusts to agree and implement the acute services strategy. • Producing and embedding an internal framework for network development. • Working with the local delivery system on vertical integration to reduce the number of patients without criteria to reside. • Working with system partners to open a surgical elective hub. • For the Trust to be seen as an ‘anchor institution’ in the local area. • Delivering the Trust’s financial plan for 2023/24. • Engaging the organisation in the challenge to manage demand so that capacity and demand are in equilibrium. • Delivery of the Always Improving strategy priorities. • Delivering the Trust’s capital programme in full. • Entering into a new energy performance contract and delivering the first year of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. Performance against these objectives was monitored and reported to the Trust’s Board on a quarterly basis. 14 At the end of 2023/24, the Trust had met the objectives set as follows: Corporate Ambition Outstanding patient outcomes, safety and experience Pioneering research and innovation World class people Integrated networks and collaboration Foundations for the future Totals Number of Objectives 5 5 5 5 5 25 Achieved in full 4 3 2 3 2 14 Partially achieved 1 2 2 1 3 9 Not achieved 0 0 1 1 0 2 Particular areas to highlight where the Trust has achieved strong delivery during the year include: • Delivery of quality priorities in Shared Decision-Making and the roll out of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. • Achieving the Trust’s 65-week waiter glide path. • Successful delivery of a number of research and development priorities, including work with the University of Southampton. • Maintaining sickness absence and turnover well below the targets set at the beginning of the year, and successfully delivering the first year of the Trust’s Inclusion and Belonging strategy. • Delivery of the Trust’s full available capital budget and completion of the first year of the Trust’s decarbonisation scheme. 15 Principal risks to our strategy and objectives The Board 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 2023/24 were that: • There would be a lack of capacity to appropriately respond to emergency demand, manage the increasing waiting lists for elective demand, and provide timely diagnostics, that results in avoidable harm to patients. • Due to the current challenges, the Trust fails to provide patients and their families or carers with a highquality experience of care and positive patient outcomes. • The Trust would not effectively plan for and implement infection prevention and control measures that reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections and limit the number of nosocomial outbreaks of infection. • The Trust does not take full advantage of its position as a leading university teaching hospital with a growing, reputable and innovative research and development portfolio, attracting the best staff and efficiently delivering the best possible treatments and care for its patients. • The Trust is unable to meet current and planned service requirements due to unavailability of qualified staff to fulfil key roles. • The Trust fails to develop a diverse, compassionate and inclusive workforce, providing a more positive experience for all staff. • The Trust fails to create a sustainable and innovative education and development response to meet the current and future workforce needs identified in the Trust’s longer-term workforce plan. • The Trust does not implement effective models to deliver integrated and networked care, resulting in sub-optimal patient experience and outcomes, increased numbers of admissions and increases in patients’ length of stay. • The Trust is unable to deliver a financial breakeven position, resulting in: inability to move out of the NHS England Recovery Support Programme; NHS England imposing additional controls/undertakings; and a reducing cash balance, impacting the Trust’s ability to invest in line with its capital plan, estates and digital strategies and in transformation initiatives. • The Trust does not adequately maintain, improve and develop its estate to deliver its clinical services and increase capacity. • The Trust fails to introduce and implement new technology and expand the use of existing technology to transform its delivery of care through the funding and delivery of the digital strategy. • The Trust fails to prioritise green initiatives to deliver a trajectory that will reduce its direct and indirect carbon footprint by 80% by 2028-2032 (compared with a 1990 baseline) and reach net zero direct carbon emissions by 2040 and net zero indirect carbon emissions by 2045. During 2023/24, the Trust saw continued increased demand for its services, particularly in the Emergency Department In addition, the number of patients having no clinical criteria to reside in hospital, but unable to be discharged due to a lack of appropriate care packages was higher than anticipated and spiked during winter, which significantly impacted patient flow through the hospital and required the Trust to engage additional temporary staff. The number of patients in this category peaked at 270 during the winter. There were particular challenges in respect of those patients with a primary mental health care need who would be better cared for in a more suitable alternative setting. 16 Performance overview The Trust monitors a broad range of key performance indicators within its departments, divisions, directorates and through Trust executive committees. On a monthly basis, the Board and executive committee receives a performance report containing a variety of indicators intended to provide assurance in respect of the Trust’s strategy and that the care provided is safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led. This report also includes the Trust’s performance against the national targets set by NHS England. The performance reports include a ‘spotlight’ section, which provides more detailed analysis of a particular area. Typically, this is one of either the national targets or the Trust’s performance against the expectations set out in the NHS Constitution. The monthly performance report is also published on the Trust’s website. The Chief Executive Officer provides a regular report on performance to the Council of Governors, which includes a range of non-financial and financial performance information. Capacity The Trust continued to experience high demand for its services, especially in the Emergency Department, with average demand during the year being around 375 patients presenting per day in the main adult and children’s emergency department. In addition, the Trust experienced a significant impact on flow within the hospital due to a high number of patients having no clinical criteria to reside in hospital but unable to be discharged. This number was as high as 270 at times during winter: an increase of around 50 patients when compared to the prior year. The Trust also saw an increase in the number of referrals with the number of patients on a waiting list under the 18-week Referral to Treatment pathway rising from approximately 55,000 to 58,000 by the end of the year. In common with other trusts, the ongoing industrial action also impacted the Trust’s ability to provide urgent care and deliver on its elective recovery programme. Quality and compliance Despite the challenges, the Trust’s Emergency Department performance was one of the highest in England in March 2024, which resulted in additional capital funding being awarded. In addition, the Trust’s elective recovery performance was one of the best in England at 118% compared to 2019. The Trust continued to monitor the quality of care delivered throughout 2023/24 through a number of established quality assurance programmes. Clinical leaders monitored key quality, safety and patient experience indicators such as falls, pressure ulcers and venous thromboembolisms. Quality peer reviews were carried out, most significantly through Matron-led Quality Walkabouts every week in and out of hours focusing on the five key CQC questions – safe, effective, responsive, caring, and well-led. The Trust’s Clinical Accreditation Scheme builds on this intelligence, with clinical areas completing self-assessments of performance and review teams completing onsite visits. Patient representatives were included in these review teams. Learning was shared at the Clinical Leaders’ Group and via quarterly reports. The Trust was an active partner in a South-East accreditation network, offering advice and a steer to providers who are just setting up or looking to develop their own scheme, and extended that advice and support to other providers in England. 17 On 15 May 2023, the CQC inspected the maternity and midwifery service at Princess Anne Hospital as part of their national maternity inspection programme. The inspection report was published 11 August 2023, and the Trust retained its overall rating of ‘good’. This year UHS introduced its Fundamentals of Care (FOC) initiative. Whilst this is not a new concept, there were concerns that missed fundamental care had been amplified during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This initiative aims to empower and educate staff at all levels to ensure fundamental care is at the heart of what the Trust does. The Trust completed its transition to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and collaborated with the ICB to develop a PSIRF plan and policy to underpin the change. The Trust implemented the requirements in respect of ‘Martha’s Rule’ where patients, relatives and carers have a legal right to a rapid review by a critical care outreach team during an acute deterioration episode in and out of hours. The Trust continued its focus on infection prevention and control, responding rapidly to rises in infection over the winter, and successfully flexing initiatives and innovations to achieve successful management in a responsive manner. The Trust progressed its Always Improving strategy and successfully supported the identification and implementation of further quality improvement projects. This included improvements across theatres, inpatient flow and outpatient programmes. During the year, average length of stay was reduced by 1.64%, day theatre cancellations were reduced by 200, and 42,350 patients were placed onto Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) pathways. Further information can be found in the Quality Account. Partnerships The Trust works within the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, and is an active member of a number of partner groups including the Acute Provider Collaborative Board and the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Trust develops and agrees its annual financial plans with the Integrated Care Board. The Trust is a member of a number of specific partnership groups for particular services, including the Central and South Genomics Medicine Service, the Children’s Hospital Alliance and the Southern Counties Pathology Network. The Trust works actively as a partner with other provider organisations around clinical networks, particularly with acute Trusts within the Integrated Care System and others closely located geographically. The Trust also links closely with the University of Southampton on a number of topics including research, commercial development and education and has a developed meeting structure to oversee this. 18 Workforce The Trust’s key areas of focus during 2023/24 were in respect of increasing the substantive workforce whilst also reducing reliance on bank and agency usage, and reducing staff turnover and sickness. Although the Trust was successful in recruiting to substantive posts, the expected reduction in reliance on bank and agency staff did not materialise, which meant that the Trust was 331 whole-time equivalents above its plan for 2023/24. The Trust was successful in reducing staff turnover from 13.5% in 2022/23 to 11.4%, achieving the local target of . Cancer Waiting Times - 2 Week Wait Performance Cancer Waiting Times - 2 Week Wait Performance 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% Apr-23 May-23 Jun-23 Jul-23 Aug-23 Sep-23 Oct-23 Nov-23 Dec-23 Jan-24 Feb-24 Mar-24 Performance % standard met The national target was for 96% of patients to commence treatment within 31 days of diagnosis. In March 2024, the Trust achieved 92% and performed in the range of 86%-94% throughout the year. The Trust has continued to make progress against the target for treatment of cancer within 62 days of an urgent GP referral, improving performance from 64% in April 2023 to 76% in March 2024 (NHS average: 69%). First definitive treatment for cancer within 31 days of a decision to treat % standard met Cancer waiting times 31 day RTT performanceUHS vs. NHSE average Cancer waiting times 31 day RTT performance UHS vs. NHSE average 96% 94% 92% 90% 88% 86% 84% 82% 80% 78% 76% Apr-23 May-23 Jun-2 3 Jul-2 3 Aug-23 Sep-2 3 Oct-23 Nov-2 3 Dec-23 Jan-24 Feb-2 4 Mar-24 Performance NHS Average 27 Treatment for Cancer within 62 days of an urgent GP referral to hospital Cancer Waiting Times 62 Day RTT Performance UHS vs NHSE Average Cancer Waiting Times 62 Day RTT Performance UHS vs NHSE Average % standard met 1 00% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Apr-23 May-23 Jun-23 Jul-23 Aug-23 Sep-23 Oct-23 Nov-23 Dec-23 Jan-24 Feb-24 Mar-24 Performance NHS Average 28 Quality priorities Priorities for improvement 2023/24 Last year the Trust continued its ambition to deliver the highest quality care shaped by a range of national, regional, local, and Trust-wide factors. During the year the Trust continued to experience unprecedented demand on its services, with flow, capacity, infection prevention and safety all presenting challenges. However, the Trust was confident in its ability to keep a focus on its quality priorities, and its teams worked hard to achieve their goals even in these difficult circumstances. Priorities are aligned to the three core dimensions of quality: • Patient experience – how patients experience the care they receive. • Patient safety – keeping patients safe from harm. • Clinical effectiveness – how successful is the care provided? Out of the six priories set, the Trust achieved five and partially achieved one. Overview of success Quality Priority One Improving care for people with learning disabilities and autistic (LDA) people across the Trust. Supporting staff delivering this care. Outcome against goals: achieved Key achievements: • LDA working group reestablished. • Development of an improvement plan using the NHS Learning Disability Improvement standards. • The LDA team has moved to the virtual enhanced care group in Division B where operational and governance support, leadership, and peer support/learning opportunities has been strengthened. • Sensory Boxes have been introduced for all clinical areas, funded by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight (HIOW) Integrated care board (ICB). These boxes include noise cancelling headphones, fidget toys, communication books and visual cards to support patients and wards. • Recruited additional Learning Disability Champions. • Established links with the parent carer forum (PCF) for the local area and are now attending regular events. A representative from the PCF sits on the LDA working group. The LDA team are working with the Trust lead for patient experience to develop this aspect of the LDA workplan over the next year. Quality Priority Two Supporting patients, service users and staff to overcome their tobacco dependence via a smoking cessation programme. Outcome against goals: achieved Key achievements: • Package of support available to patients who may be smokers and who need to be supported not to smoke during their treatment. • Fully trained team of tobacco advisors working in the hospital and an advisor working in the outpatient setting supporting the patients once they have returned home. • Devised the IT changes the Trust would like to implement to improve its service and referral process. • Recruited 30 smoke-free champions. • Successfully supported 1,131 patients with a self-confirmed quit rate of 45.6% at 28 days. • Supported 109 outpatients who have successfully achieved a 60% quit rate. • On track to achieve the goal to go smoke-free by April 2024 including the removal of smoking shelters. 29 Quality Priority Three Ensure carers are fully supported, involved, and valued across all our services by developing the carers support service across the Trust in partnership with Southampton Hospitals. Outcome against goals: partially achieved Key achievements: • Carers now have a more comprehensive package of concessions and vouchers to help support their cared-for person (e.g. free parking available onsite for blue badge owners is now available). • Listening events were held to put patients at the centre of transforming the way we deliver care is delivered, enabling their voices to improve the quality of care and outcomes for all. • Developed joint working with local partners (e.g. Children’s Society and No Limits to support young carers). Not yet achieved: • The ‘pathway to support, has not yet been developed. Work is ongoing to develop a new strategy. • A charity-funded carers’ support worker has not yet been appointed. • The carers’ training package has not yet been relaunched. Quality Priority Four Put patients at the centre of transforming the way care is delivered, enabling their voices to improve the quality of care and outcomes for all. Outcome against goals: achieved Key achievements: • Work has continued to work across corporate and divisional services to embed patients and carers into quality and service improvement, creating new patient groups (e.g. Mesh Support Group). • Successfully developed our engagement with various local communities, working to ensure that a range of care experiences are considered ( e.g. there is now a Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller community health liaison officer to ensure that these communities are engaged with and brought into work to improve the inclusivity of our services). • Attending multiple public engagement opportunities (Young Carers’ Festival, Mela, University Freshers’ Fayres, Carers’ Listening Lunch, Hoglands Park Play Day, visits to local temples and ‘Love Where You Live’). • Youth and Young Adult Ambassador involvement has increased, including attendance toat meetings of the Council of Governors, and supporting hospital projects. • A Celebration of Carers Week and Volunteers Week were run. • The Trust has analysed its reported outcome measures to identify health inequalities in its services. This information has been used to set a new quality priority for 2024/25. • An SMS friends and family test text survey has been introduced to improve the response rate on patient feedback from the Emergency Department. In the first three months following the survey launch, responses increased from 24 to 424. 30 Quality Priority Five To develop the Trust’s clinical effectiveness process, connecting to the Trust’s Always Improving approach to measuring, understanding, and using outcomes to improve patient care. Outcome against goals: achieved Key achievements: • The Trust has developed its clinical effectiveness process across the Trust with involvement of informatics, governance and management teams, clinical effectiveness leads as well as reporting committees. • Patient representation onhas been included in the clinical assurance meeting for effectiveness and outcomes (CAMEO) to ensure conversations focus on what matters to patients. • The CAMEO template has been changed to focus discussions on areas the specialty is proud of (strong or improving outcomes), areas for improvement (poorly benchmarked or worsening outcomes) and planned actions. • The Trust encourages the use of run and/or statistical process control charts along with benchmarking where available. • Details of NICE and quality standards and national and regional reviews are included to cover breadth of clinical effectiveness. • How the clinical effectiveness team works has been reorganised, aligning each of them to each division giving a named link which helps to deepen understanding and improve links with governance and improvement activities locally. • Working with informatics to establish a core set of clinical outcome measures which are meaningful to patients, which can be reported centrally (starting with surgical specialities). • Starting to develop an education strategy and platform to support staff with a number of tools used in clinical effectiveness as well as clarity on where and how to record and evidence audit and service improvement. • A revised strategy has been drafted. Quality Priority Six Developing a culture where all clinical staff have a basic knowledge of diabetes. Outcome against goals: achieved Key achievements: • Launch of the ‘Start with the Diabasics’ Initiative, designed to help give diabetes visibility across UHS. • Delivered an extensive education programme to clinical staff across the professions and bands, including the introduction of some e-learning and a Diabasics introductory video has been shown at all trust staff inductions since July 2023. • Supported the development of 45 diabetes link nurses, resulting in all ward areas now having a named diabetes link nurse. • Improved triage for referrals. • Established processes for ‘lessons learned’. • Developed IT solutions to improvingimprove alerts and guidance. • A ‘Ketone Wednesdays’ initiative has been created in response to overuse of blood ketone testing (estimated waste cost of £100,000 per year). • The Trust’s lead diabetes specialist nurse and the Diabasics Initiative were both shortlisted for National Quality in the Care Diabetes Awards (October 2023). • The Diabasics Initiative was mentioned as a case study on the Diabetes UK charity website as an example of good practice that could be reproduced elsewhere. More information can be found about how the Trust delivered and measured its quality priorities, including feedback from patients and staff and improvement aims and quality priorities for 2024/25, in the Trust’s Quality Account for 2023/24. 31 Financial performance The Trust delivered a deficit of £4.5m from a revenue position of over £1.3bn, following receipt of £24.6m one-off cash support from NHS England. UHS started the year with an underlying deficit as a result of a number of cost pressures, notably demand for services being above block contract levels and the cost of national pay awards being above funded levels. The Trust has also continued to face a number of pressures, including high numbers of patients who no longer meet the criteria to reside in the hospital, and high demand for patients with a primary mental health need. In 2023/24, the Trust delivered a record savings level of £63.4m (5%) across a range of programmes. Trust operating income rose by £107m from the previous financial year, most notably funding the NHS pay award, as well as additional elective recovery funding. Trust operating expenses rose by £89m, incorporating funded inflationary costs as well as costs relating to the cost pressures outlined above. The Trust has also continued its reinvestment of surplus cash into infrastructure for the Trust, with capital investment of over £75m, including investment in new wards, theatres, decarbonisation, digital infrastructure, neonatal expansion and backlog maintenance. Trust cash and cash equivalents finished the year at £79m, a reduction of £24m from the previous year due to the operating loss and capital investment outlined above. Whilst liquidity remained strong in 2023/24 supported by NHS England cash support, the underlying financial deficit means it is likely to decline further in 2024/25. The Trust is continuing to monitor its cash position closely and is considering whether additional cash support may be required in 2024/25. Sustainability The Trust recognises that everyone has a part to play in responding to the climate crisis. In March 2022, the Trust agreed its own green plan in response to the challenge of the NHS becoming the world’s first health service to reach carbon net zero. Now in its third year, the plan identifies the Trust’s key areas of focus and its ambitions and has seen progress across all areas of the plan. The plan sets out the scale of the challenge, the Trust’s commitment to reducing the impact on the environment and the steps to be taken across the following categories: • Estates and facilities • Clinical and medicines • Digital transformation • Supply chain and procurement • Travel and transport • Waste and resources • Food and nutrition • Adaptation • Biodiversity • Wider sustainability The Trust continues to progress through its green plan and has completed the ‘Greener NHS’ reporting tool for several quarters, which has demonstrated good progress. In addition, the Trust is planning to launch its ‘Our Sustainable UHS’ app for staff, which will give tips on sustainability and create personalised travel plans, including identifying potential contacts for car sharing. In addition, the Trust is considering proposals to implement additional solar power, smart metering and expanding the use of LED lighting. 32 In 2022/23, the Trust was successful in bidding for £29.4m of funding through the Public Sector DeCarbonisation Fund, which will be used to fund green initiatives as part of the Trust’s capital programme. During the year the Trust successfully bid for £823k in National Energy Efficiency Funding which has been used to upgrade the lighting at Princess Anne Hospital. Social, community, anti-bribery and human rights issues The Trust recognises its responsibilities under the European Convention on Human Rights (included in the Human Rights Act 1998 in the UK). These rights include: • right to life • right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment • right to liberty and freedom • right to respect for privacy and family life. These are reflected in the duty, set out in the NHS Constitution, to each and every individual that the NHS serves, to respect their human rights and the individual’s right to be treated with dignity and respect. The Trust is committed to ensuring it fully takes into account all aspects of human rights in its work. An equality impact assessment is completed for each Trust policy. For patients, the Trust’s safeguarding policies protect and support the right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect and other policies and standards are designed to optimise privacy and dignity in all aspects of patient care. Feedback from patients and the review of complaints, concerns, claims, incidents and audit help to monitor how the Trust is achieving these objectives. The Trust’s green plan, approved by the board of directors in March 2022, recognises the Trust’s broader role and responsibility to address the issues of climate change, air pollution, waste and environmental decline present to the city of Southampton and the impact that these issues have on the health and wellbeing of the local population served. Although the Modern Slavery Act 2015 does not apply to the Trust, its green plan sets out an ambition to stop modern slavery. The Trust is also committed to maintaining an honest and open culture within the Trust; ensuring all concerns involving potential fraud, bribery and corruption are identified and rigorously investigated. The Trust has a Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Policy, a Standards of Business Conduct Policy and a Raising Concerns (Whistleblowing) Policy. These apply to all staff and to individuals and organisations who act on behalf of UHS. Anti-bribery is part of the Trust’s work to counter fraud. This work is overseen by the Audit and Risk Committee, which receives regular reports from the local counter fraud specialist on the effectiveness of these policies through its monitoring and reviews, providing recommendations for improvement, as well as an annual report from the freedom to speak up guardian. You can read more about the work of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Trust’s approach to counter fraud in the Accountability Report. Events since the end of the financial year There have been no important events since the end of the financial year affecting the Trust. Overseas operations The Trust does not have any overseas operations. 33 Equality in service delivery NHS trusts have an essential role in tackling health inequalities, both as part of the services they provide, but also through work with the wider system. By working with those in integrated care systems, local authorities and third sector organisations, the Trust can have a significant impact on the health of the local population. The national focus on health inequalities is growing. This comes with new legal duties around reporting information and expectations to report on improvement programmes. In September 2023, a health inequalities steering group was initiated, under the leadership of the Chief Medical Officer, with representation from clinical, operational, transformation, patient experience, research, organisational development and culture, informatics, public health and the Integrated Care Board. The group focused on scoping future priorities aligned to national guidelines, contractual obligations and priorities, regional priorities, feedback from clinical teams and patients, understanding where action is already being taken, and what the data is showing. Overall, the group
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Annual report 2021-2022

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2021/22 Incorporating the quality report University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22 Presented to Parliament
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/Media/UHS-website-2019/Docs/About-the-Trust/Annual-reports-and-quality-accounts/Annual-report-2021-2022.pdf

Annual-report-24-25-final

Description
2024/25 Incorporating the quality account University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25 Presented to Parliament
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/Media/UHS-website-2019/Docs/About-the-Trust/Annual-reports-and-quality-accounts/Annual-report-24-25-final.pdf
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