I was pleased to meet up this week with Mary Edwards, Chief Executive at Winchester Hospital. The difference is that this Chief Executive is managing three hospital sites at Winchester, Basingstoke and Andover, making up the Hampshire Hospitals Trust
http://www.hampshirehospitals.nhs.uk/.

Mary explained that with relatively new CEO’s at the three Trusts covering Winchester & Basingstoke, Portsmouth and Southampton, the three women in these senior posts are in a strong position to make it work for residents in Hampshire.

I was impressed by the clear strategy that Mary Edwards has. It should feel the same for patients visiting all three hospitals at Basingstoke, Winchester and Andover within the Trust. To do this, Mary started the teams crossing between the sites, (using the hospital minibus shuttle) so they could become colleagues well known to each other, and combine best practice from each site right across the Trust.
We looked specifically at two parts of the hospital that local people frequently ask me about, and talked in some detail on others.

Jo Carter, Clinical Service Lead, joined us in the Emergency Department– ED is the new name for A&E.
Work is starting soon at Winchester to improve the patient flow to increase efficiency-and provide a more comfortable waiting environment!
There are three ways in to ED – all with a different purpose, means that patients are dealt with as smoothly as possible.
Three new improvements that will make a real difference:
1. a GP on site to deal with GP type queries,
2. a better entrance for the ‘walking wounded’-with less draughts for those waiting and a friendlier reception area
3. a clear pathway for children entering-with less movement from room to room.
We then met Caroline Brunt, Associate Director for Midwifery & Women’s Health in the Maternity unit.
Caroline manages the whole building which includes a range of services for women, including breast screening and maternity of course.
I had my first baby in Winchester nearly 28 years ago- and how the birthing options have improved since then!
We visited the two new birthing suites. Two swish rooms with beds, birthing pools and even mood lighting. It has been shown that a woman’s temperature during childbirth can be influenced by the colour of the lights- pink warms you up, blue cools you down.
The Maternity team manages all of the midwifery staff, whether they operate in the mother’s home or in hospital. It’s a complex task as these occasions can’t be programmed in like routine operations!

A recent innovation has been the Labourline: a phone number is given to Mums-to-be who ring in to speak to a midwife, once they are in labour. Decisions can then be made jointly between Mum and Midwife, deciding the best time to come into hospital. If there’s any doubt, then an ambulance is on call.
Caroline says it has reduced ‘Births Before Admission’ rates significantly in the few months it has been operating, even offering mums to be the chance to go to a different hospital if more suited to their needs.
It is innovations like this that reassure me that Mary and her team are doing the best that they can for ”Mums-to-be” right across the constituency.

We discussed major health issues such as heart surgery, head injuries, back injuries and strokes.
Mary was very complimentary about the Paramedic team who are assessing patients as they arrive at their homes.
Often aided by the BASICS team and the First Responders, the Paramedics assess and take patients to the best place for that illness-for example, Salisbury for spinal injuries, Southampton for head injuries.
But if a patient has a stroke in our area, they are taken to Winchester. Known as a ‘centre of excellence’ for strokes, the Ward Team aims to be waiting for the patient to assess them for the best treatment as they arrive in the hospital.
Local residents will know that planned major heart surgery is carried out at Southampton and Basingstoke- with some patients travelling to the Brompton Hospital in London.
A trauma unit is still on the cards- tackling emergencies in a centrally based, separately run Intensive Care Unit, until the patient is well enough to receive support from their local hospital.

I asked why so many people seem to be offered hip and knee replacements at private hospitals? Is it a capacity matter? Mary said no- it was a patient choice issue. GP’s can offer choice-and the Private hospitals are making a strong bid for routine work like this. This is a result of the Patient Choice and the GP commissioning agenda. There is a risk because leaving a private hospital for home puts you out of the NHS support network which can cause problems with ongoing social and health care.
What do you think? Do you have any experience of this?

Many of us are lucky enough to use the hospital as in patients rarely but I asked about walk-in / treatment services for residents in Chandler’s Ford and Hiltingbury. Local residents are worried where they need to travel to for blood and other tests and treatments. Mary said that they had plans to open a centre in the Eastleigh area. I will follow that through.

We discussed patients with mental health issues arriving for help at ED. A close relationship with the mental health trust, means that a member of their team will assess them in ED –but in-patient places are short and present a real challenge. Mary stated that the number of patients going out of area for a place was reducing.

We also talked about care of the elderly. Complaints to me are principally about this group of patients, especially for those with dementia, who feel poorly supported at meal times and a loss of dignity in their care.
The Chief Exec of the Trust said that a recent survey showed that on one day, over 70% of patients in hospital were in this ‘elderly with some sort of mental incapacity’ category. She was looking at best practice from all of the hospitals to improve this. One key action already is to set a specific time for food to be eaten, with the help of volunteers, without interruption from consultants’ visit or being whisked away to another part of the hospital for a test or treatment. At the moment, these wards have been closed to ‘non essential visitors’ because of the novo-virus but I will be going back to look at this in more depth. The other is to embrace and work with the older demographic in the area, and there are signs of this at Basingstoke too. The Trust’s relationship with Gill Duncan, Director of Adult Services at HCC is key here.
So, finally, what of the inevitable virus scare that seems to blight hospitals at this time of year? We discussed cleaning routines, and the pressure it puts on the hospital already at 90+% occupation rates (on bad days it can be 97%) .
With more than 400 beds at each of the Winchester and Basingstoke sites, the throughput of the 900 beds can be severely compromised if novo virus-or similar turns up. The best ways to combat this are assessment of present health as the patient enters the hospital, good hand washing and clear policies on deep cleaning of bays and rooms between patients.

It was a really interesting visit, with lots to think about. It was good to get to know Mary Edwards better: a very capable woman who is in charge of the three sites as one hospital, as she develops the modern hospital services for this constituency. It is easy to stand up for ‘the way it has always been’, but it is definitely worth listening to very skilled professionals as they respond to the changing demands of our population.

If you have any health queries, please let me know.
I will be happy to take them up with the NHS trusts, and the GP’s too.

   Leave a comment