West Suffolk Hospital Annual General Meeting

I went to the AGM of the West Suffolk Hospital yesterday evening.  It was held at the Apex and was well attended by members of the public.

I have been appointed by the County Council as their representative Governor, and this was the first official event that I have attended.

It was good to learn from the Chief Executive that the hospital is ‘one of the best in the region’ when it comes to Clinical Care Commission Reports.  It is also encouraging that mortality rates are low.  Last year however there were some issues during the winter period with regard to the performance of Accident and Emergency and measures have been put in place to improve this.

A major cause for concern is that after Norfolk, Suffolk has the oldest population in the Country. The implications of this demographic situation are compounded by the fact that for the first time ever the NHS is faced with frozen budgets.  The management of the hospital sees the answer in developing new ways of working both internally and with partners.  One of the major partners is of course the County Council.  It is in improving the connections between the hospital service and care in the community provided by the Council that better value for money and better outcomes for people can be achieved.

As a glimpse into the near future, we heard about ‘tele-consultations’ where Skype and other media are used to ‘see’ patients at home with the aim of dealing with patient problems remotely.   In Airedale, where such methods are already being used, a 47% reduction in admissions to A and E has been recorded, and there has been less need for patients to travel to hospital to see consultants. Having been obliged to shuttle backwards and forwards to hospital appointments myself in the recent past, such developments sound encouraging, and will particularly help those who have transport problems.

The Chief Executive was followed by an interesting presentation by the hospital’s Dementia Team.  They demonstrated how efforts are being made to make the hospital more user friendly for the increasing number of patients suffering from the condition.  Apparently 1 in 3 people over 65 will develop Dementia before they die....a frightening statistic.

I don’t think that running a hospital is easy, particularly in the current environment, but the meeting gave the impression that the West Suffolk is doing reasonably well.  I am looking forward to understanding more about how it functions….its performance is a matter close to the heart for many of us.