As winter approaches, we know our busiest period is approaching. Our SAFER programme is already having an impact on the way we deliver care to patients, making the organisation even better for patients and more robust in our processes of delivering care.

The programme is structured into different work themes. These either focus on treating people in the optimum place for the patient - often not in hospital, or treating people more efficiently and effectively whilst they are in hospital.

Initial key areas of work are focus on Ambulatory Care and Frailty, as well as better ways of working on the wards, and stronger collaborative links between community and inpatient services.

A great example is the recent work in Medical Division by some of the acute team at HRI.  They’ve demonstrated multi professional working with a successful test of a new assessment of patients called Discharge to Assess (DtA).

The test, supported by the SAFER programme, has involved Consultant Clinicians, Therapists, Social Care and Nursing colleagues, all working within the acute admission areas of HRI.  It provides a speedy, holistic assessment of patients shortly after their arrival in the Emergency Department (ED).  This allows a package of immediate interventions to be put in place and an ‘on the day’ home assessment can be carried out, often avoiding a lengthy stay in hospital.

Gemma Wetherby, the senior physiotherapist in the team (see main pic) said; ‘The patients loved it. They couldn’t believe they were looked after so well and so quickly’.

The SAFER programme is led by our Chief Operating Officer, Helen Barker, along with our Associate Director of Urgent Care, Bev Walker, and is now is starting to impact on the way our Trust delivers care to its patients.

Service Improvement Lead, Colin Duffield told CHFT Weekly; “Quality and safety in the way we deliver our services makes sense for our patients, but also for the Trust. We need to use our resources as effectively as possible across both hospital and community settings. Quality, safety and efficiency are absolutely reliant on each other.”

Bev added: “This is an exciting time. We have challenges to meet, but have an expert workforce who have ideas and can redesign services to meet those challenges. I’ve been really impressed at the enthusiasm and every day I meet colleagues who really want to make our Trust truly outstanding.”