Trust named as finalist in health awards
The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has been named as a finalist in a prestigious health awards ceremony.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) is a finalist in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards for its project Healthcare with a kind touch and a small footprint. The project is shortlisted in the Improving Environmental and Social Sustainability category.
There were more than 1,600 entries for the HSJ awards and organisers say being shortlisted is a “fantastic achievement”.
Healthcare with a kind touch and a small footprint is SaTH’s commitment to making the Trust more sustainable and reducing its carbon footprint by 10% by 2015/16. This is being achieved through a number of initiatives including looking at sustainable environmental and social development, ways to include more volunteers, a green travel plan and buying in a more environmentally friendly and local-friendly way.
Trust staff have taken the initiative to their hearts, with nearly 100 signing up as ‘Sustainability Champions’. The Trust has also built up a strong working relationship with local authorities and has jointly appointed a Travel Plan Co-ordinator to improve performance in this area.
The number of public volunteers has risen from 27 to over 500, with the Trust developing a number of roles for volunteers, from generally helping on wards to dementia buddies, feeding buddies and befrienders, as well as more casual opportunities such as gardening, painting and other refurbishment projects.
The Trust has also established a Young Volunteers programme which has seen 91% of participants go on to study for a healthcare related degree, and now has over 100 modern apprentices – compared with just eight a couple of years ago.
Opportunities for community volunteers to work at both hospital sites have seen the creation of beautiful and healing garden environments for patients, staff and visitors. This has also involved working with private sectors partners who donated time and money and the Trust is now developing a programme of ‘Make A Difference’ Days for more local businesses to come forward to help with this type of project.
Julia Clarke, Director of Corporate Governance at SaTH, said: “Sustainability has become increasingly important as the impact of people’s lifestyles and business choices are changing the world in which we live. The challenge for the health and care system is to continually improve health and wellbeing and deliver high quality care when needed.
“The challenge is how to do this now and for future generations within available financial, social and environmental resources.
“In order to fulfil our responsibilities for the role we play, we’ve adopted the Healthcare with a kind touch and a small footprint mission statement, which was suggested by a member of staff following a Trust-wide competition.
“We are also working with other health organisations, local councils and the private sector to work within the available environmental and social resources to protect and improve health now and for future generations and to adopt a positive approach to improving physical and social sustainability.
“This is the first time that SaTH has ever been a finalist in the HSJ awards and I think it recognises that we have not just focused on one single project and thrown all our efforts into that. Instead, we have recognised that we need to rely on and work with the enthusiasm and commitment of our Sustainability Champions, our 500 volunteers, 5,000 members of staff and our local population of more than 500,000 people to achieve the strategic and cultural shift to make us truly sustainable.”
Representatives from SaTH will now present their entry to a judging panel in early October. The winners will be announced at the HSJ Awards, which will take place on 18 November at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
