North Bristol NHS Trust. Our Trust has one of the broadest ranges of specialities and we employ nearly 9,000 staff. As a specialist acute trust we touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year. In 2008/09 we delivered over 5,800 babies, cared for more than 82,000 people who came to our emergency departments, treated nearly 371,000 outpatients, cared for over 75,000 inpatients and 42,000 day case patients.
North Bristol NHS Trust provides care from two large acute hospitals – Frenchay and Southmead – and from a variety of smaller locations, including Cossham, Orchard View, Riverside Unit and other community-based sites.
The majority of our work is the provision of all hospital based medical and surgical services to the local population of North Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset and maternity and paediatric services for a local population of approximately 500,000.
Our specialist regional services include neurosciences, burns and plastic surgery, orthopaedics, pathology and renal services for people living in the former Avon area, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire and also throughout the South West peninsula. Our international reputation means that we also receive referrals from all over the UK and overseas. For these services our population catchment rises to two million.
Developing our people
We are a teaching Trust with links to the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. This Trust is committed to developing its staff by offering them learning and research opportunities that will ultimately improve the care and services we offer our patients. We have also strengthened our research portfolio over the last year, with around 500 staff involved in 400 separate research projects across the Trust.
Continued progress at NBT
With the help and support of all our staff, we have made great progress in improving the care we provide and putting this Trust on a sound financial footing. The Trust has made small surpluses for each of the last four financial years and successfully brought its expenditure in line with its income.
In the latest Healthcare Commission’s annual health check we achieved an overall score of fair for the quality of our services and fair for our use of resources - an improvement on last year’s rating when we scored fair for quality of services and weak for use of resources.
We were prevented from getting a higher rating this year due to issues associated with our out-dated hospital buildings and infection control. We feel the rating is not a true reflection considering the huge reductions in infection that we have achieved recently and is very much about auditing processes, not actions being taken.
This is also the first year we have fully met existing national targets and we continue to make good progress with new national targets.
The Trust as a whole gained Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) level 2 in November 2005 and more recently, our maternity department has gained CNST level 3 – one of only 11 trusts nationwide and the first trust in the South West to do so. This reflects the soundness of our underlying clinical safety systems. In addition, our Trust was awarded a place in one of the UK’s most prestigious programmes in recognition of our commitment to improving safety for patients in conjunction with the United Bristol Healthcare Trust.
We are also applying to become an NHS Foundation Trust as it will allow us to involve our staff, patients, carers and the public much more in how our services and facilities should be provided.
Improving services and facilities
We are currently working in partnership with other NHS organisations in the area to improve local healthcare. The Bristol Health Services Plan (BHSP) aims to provide care closer to patients’ homes through a network of community hospitals and facilities; provide the best possible acute health care by bringing together specialist acute hospital services at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Southmead site; and significantly improve the environment and safety in which our patients receive care.
Many of the hospital buildings currently in use in Bristol are in very poor condition, are badly configured and are not acceptable for the delivery of good quality patient care in the 21st century. The BHSP has provided us with the opportunity to change and improve our facilities and services so we can deliver the best possible healthcare locally.
We are working with staff, patients and the public to plan the new state-of-the-art acute hospital at Southmead. The Frenchay site becomes a community facility to support the main site and provide more local ambulatory care and PCTs are also developing plans and facilities within their own boundaries to improve the extent of clinical services provided out of hospital settings. Investment of over £430million is planned to reprovide the acute and two community facilities at Southmead and Frenchay by 2013/14. Exciting times lie ahead as we all work together to improve our care and the environment for patients and underpin the skills of our staff.
