Welcome

We will improve lives of our patients, our people and our local population.

We are grateful to our colleagues who set out to deliver outstanding, compassionate care and treatment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and to all those behind the scenes who support this. We are proud of our achievements over the last five years and yet recognise communities and patients want more from us.

The NHS Constitution tells us that “The NHS belongs to us all. It is there to improve our health and wellbeing, support us to keep mentally and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we cannot fully recover, to stay as well as we can to the end of our lives.”

Improving people’s lives and experience of care is at the heart of what matters to us and helps to drive the change we want to see. It is widely accepted that the current speed of change across health and social care, such as the spread and adoption of new ideas, is too slow to meet current and upcoming challenges including higher demand for health and care.

Every NHS service recognises that a culture of listening is central to providing safe, high-quality care. Despite this, across the NHS there have been multiple incidents and subsequent inquiries that have shown how failing to listen and act on people’s concerns can result in poor experiences, and, in extreme cases, catastrophic consequences.

Our CARE values will ensure the concerns of staff and patients are viewed as an early warning system to highlight safety issues, and that the concerns of staff and patients is seen as integral to continually
improving the quality and safety of care which delivers our vision. We will improve lives.

In the next five years we want to be known as an outstanding local hospital that consistently delivers quality services for our patients and improves lives. We will achieve this by delivering consistently outstanding care by compassionate people who feel enabled and supported to do their best by Sherwood Forest Hospitals. If our people recommend us as the provider of choice for their family and friends and as a place to work, we will have gone a long way to meet this
ambition.

We also want to look outside the walls of a traditional local hospital. We want to contribute towards delivering healthier communities in the areas we serve of Ashfield, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood (Mid
Nottinghamshire) and wider. We will achieve this through our role as an ‘anchor organisation’, through our commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant, through the partnerships we have already developed, for example with West Nottinghamshire College, as well as ones we are still developing.

We also recognise we need to do more on preventing ill health and promoting healthy behaviours. Supporting prevention, alongside other providers, is an important part of our business. Through the lifecycle of this strategy we want to positively impact upon prevention to reduce the need for our citizens to require healthcare in the future and to support those who already have a long term condition to manage this differently.

We will do this by expanding the current offer for health and wellbeing. We will promote healthy behaviours in the workplace and at home for our over 6,000 people which will improve lives.

Building on the expertise of our colleagues, over the next five years we will drive a vibrant culture where people choose us as a place to come and work. They will access opportunities supported by us to develop their career aspirations and to thrive in the work they do. Sherwood Forest Hospitals will be a healthy place to work with choices that enhance our people’s own health and that of their patients, families and friends.

In providing outstanding services we also expect to transform them. We will support and develop services identified as challenged by moving them to become more sustainable.

We expect to work on our longer term sustainable financial health because having sustainable finances will lead to better investment decisions. We also need to do more to develop our opportunities with our partners where this serves the interests of our local population. The goal for our estate is to be fit for purpose and inclusive for the people we see and treat.

In creating this strategy, we engaged with our 6,000 people at workshops and events. We asked 14,000 Trust members, 400 volunteers and our partners what matters to them in delivering and receiving healthcare. We’ve heard from the public and our patients the importance of timely communication. To achieve that aim we will make the best use of technology, implementing an electronic patient record during the lifetime of this strategy. This will align communication within and between our hospital services and also across other sectors such as primary care.

This strategy is ambitious and sets the direction of travel for the forthcoming five years. We will achieve this through our six strategic objectives, which describe how we will deliver our vision:

1. Provide outstanding care in the best place at the right time.

2. Empower and support our people to be the best they can be.

3. Improve health and wellbeing within our communities.

4. Continuously learn and improve.

5. Sustainable use of resources and estate.

6. Work collaboratively with partners in the community.

The Trust Strategy is also delivered through supporting strategies for Clinical Services, Quality, People, Finance and Partnerships and several technical strategies. These supporting strategies detail actions and measures of success.

We will work with our patients, our people and partners in its implementation, and we will strive to do the very best for the population and communities we serve. Together we will improve lives of our patients, our people and our local communities.