The team at our adult acute mental health care service in London met with Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of NHS Confederation, last week to show him around the service and to highlight the wonderful work they are doing.
They were joined by our Chief Executive Officer Keith Browner, Chief Medical Officer Amit Chatterjee, and Hospital Director Matt Beavis.
Matthew was impressed with two things in particular on his visit to Holybourne Hospital — how well the service is working with system partners to manage patient flow and discharge, and the service’s focused, proactive approach to recruitment, which has seen vacancies fall from 20 to four.
Patient flow and discharge
Matthew praised the hospital for their close relationships with community teams and partners. Matthew said:
“The hospital identifies any barriers to discharge early, and works closely with community teams. They pride themselves on having established relationships and honest conversations, which is important to ensure a balanced caseload of people suitable for care at Holybourne.
“The hospital works incredibly closely with South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. They collaborate on daily pathway calls and detailed weekly meetings, to ensure the care of patients is as coordinated as possible. They benchmark across services to ensure a consistent experience for service users.”
Recruitment processes
Matthew highlighted the improvements of recruitment at the service, stating that Holybourne recognised the need for permanent staff and made plans to implement this. He said:
“A year ago, the hospital was staffed with 50% agency nurses and support workers, as a result of the sustained staffing pressures on the sector. The service recognised this was not best for patients or the organisation, so there has been a step change in recruitment.”
Matthew also stated that Holybourne have concentrated on fast onboarding, including interviewing people at recruitment days, and reinvigorating their staff wellbeing program. He highlighted that like many across the NHS and independent sector, Active Care Group recruits internationally, providing pastoral care, and helping staff to settle and find accommodation.
We’d like to say thank you to Matthew for visiting Holybourne Hospital — it was a pleasure to show you around the service.
