Talk and Tour events planned in the autumn at St Helier Hospital

Daniel-delivers-leaflets-to-local-residents

Epsom and St Helier hospitals are opening their doors to all members of the public in a series of special events that will give people a chance to find out more about the long term future of the hospitals, and have an exclusive look at how ageing buildings affect services.

The Talk and Tour events will begin with a brief presentation about the Epsom and St Helier 2020-2030 engagement campaign, before attendees are invited to join an Executive Director on a tour of the hospitals to see some of the challenges posed by the older hospital buildings.

The Epsom and St Helier 2020-2030 campaign was launched in July with the aim of finding out what local people think would be best for the long term future of the Trust, including the possibility of creating a new and additional specialist facility for acutely sick patients, where majors A&E, inpatient beds for children, births and complex emergency surgery would be delivered on one site.

Chief Executive Daniel Elkeles said: “We want local people to have their say about the long term future of our hospitals and local healthcare, and get involved in our engagement campaign. We’re throwing open our doors so that members of the public can find out more about our thoughts on the future and see why we need to begin planning now.

“We want to find out what people think about us securing £300 to £400 million to create a specialist acute facility for our sickest patients. Doing so would mean that our acute clinical staff are concentrated in one place, enabling us to meet and exceed more care standards, fill rotas more effectively and provide care in buildings which we believe local people and our staff deserve. It will mean that our sickest and most at-risk patients will be seen by our most experienced staff quickly, no matter what day of the week or time of the day.

“Importantly, this would enable us to keep the majority of services local and 85% of our patients will see no change to where they receive their care, although they would be seen in improved facilities. So please – come along to one of our events and help us plan and prepare healthcare services for future generations.”

The events will take place as follows:

  • Wednesday 13 September from 5.30pm in the Whitehall Lecture Theatre at St Helier
  • Thursday 14 September from 5.30pm in the Lecture Theatre at Epsom
  • Wednesday 20 September from 5.30pm in the Whitehall Lecture Theatre at St Helier
  • Thursday 21 September from 5.30pm Lecture Theatre at Epsom.

Daniel added: “We truly believe that we have a fantastic opportunity to work with our patients, staff and local residents to create a strong vision for the long term future of Epsom and St Helier. We currently provide high quality, compassionate care, and that is all thanks to the hard work and innovation of our staff, as well as strong working relationships with our health and social care partners. In recent years we have become much safer, improved the quality of our care, recruited hundreds more frontline clinical staff and stabilised our finances. But the fact is we are held back by our ageing buildings, many of which were designed before antibiotics were discovered.

“While any change would be some years away, we have to make sure as many people as possible have their say now – so please do get involved.”

Numbers on the tours are limited, so please make sure you reserve your space by emailing [email protected] or call the Communications Team on 020 8296 4996. If you would like to join one of our Talk and Tour events but are unable to attend on one of the dates above, please get in touch and we will try to arrange a Talk and Tour event at a convenient time. More information, including a leaflet, our video and our questionnaire is available online at www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/epsom-and-st-helier-2020-2030.

 

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