To achieve our vision, Healthier Together – Delivering Exceptional Care For All, we have adopted an approach that focuses on four Strategic Priorities, identified and developed with over 800 colleagues, patients, communities, and partners. Our four priorities describe our core focus as an organisation and they will never change.
Our Strategic Priorities are:
- Patients: Delivering safe, exceptional, person-centred care tailored to individual needs.
- People: Creating a supportive, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all colleagues.
- Partnerships: Collaborating with stakeholders to enhance services and achieve shared goals for our communities.
- Pounds: Ensuring financial responsibility and efficient use of resources to sustain and improve healthcare services.
The priorities are underpinned by our Strategic Ambitions. Our Strategic Ambitions set out important work DBTH must do over time to improve how we provide care, make it sustainable for the future, and move closer to our vision.
Our Strategic Ambitions are:
- Tackling Health Inequalities.
- Becoming a leading centre for research and education.
- Becoming a digitally enabled and mature organisation.
- Improving the Trust’s estate to provide the best care environment.
Our Strategic Priorities and Ambitions are also supported by Enabling Strategies. Together they create a framework which outline the key principles, actions and work plans, driving us to achieve our vision. See the DBTH Strategic Wheel.
Our Strategic priorities
To deliver on our vision, we focus on four core priorities: patients, people, partnerships and pounds. These aren’t just headings – they shape how we work every day. In the sections that follow, we set out what each of these priorities means in practice, and the actions we’re taking to bring them to life.
Patients: Providing safe, exceptional, person-centred care:
We’re focused on making sure every patient receives high-quality, timely care that meets their individual needs. This includes supporting those who face barriers, creating welcoming environments, and helping people play an active role in their care.
We will:
- Improve timeliness and quality of care, reducing waiting times and making sure patients are seen in the right setting.
- Deliver innovative treatments and research opportunities.
- Enhance care environments so they are safe and welcoming.
- Ensure underserved communities get the support they need to access services.
- Empower patients to take an active role in their care.
People: Fostering a supportive, positive and welcoming environment
Our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do. We’re committed to creating an inclusive, flexible and forward-thinking workplace where people feel valued, supported and able to thrive.
We will:
- Position DBTH as an employer of choice.
- Deliver the objectives of our Research and Innovation and People Strategies.
- Embed a culture of speaking up and inclusion.
- Further implement and embed talent management and succession planning.
- Strengthen leadership development.
Partnership: Collaborating to enhance our services with clear goals for our communities
We know that delivering long-lasting, accessible care relies on strong partnerships across our system – from charities and social care to education and research.
We will:
- Deliver seamless care that meets the diverse needs of our population, in the right place.
- Promote health education and prevention efforts to improve outcomes.
- Advance cutting-edge research, digital transformation, and evidence-based care.
- Leverage expertise and funding from both public and private partners.
Pounds: Ensuring efficiency and wise spending of public funds
To provide outstanding care now and in the future, we need a strong financial foundation. We’re committed to using resources wisely, reducing waste, and securing new funding through innovation, research and partnership.
We will:
- Enhance operational efficiency, streamline processes, and reduce costs without compromising quality.
- Diversify funding through grants, research, philanthropy, and public-private partnerships.
- Invest in digital transformation, modern infrastructure, and new care models that improve outcomes and experience.
- Align financial incentives with better patient outcomes, ensuring every pound has impact.
Strategic Wheel and Ambitions
The DBTH Strategic Wheel illustrates how our Strategic Priorities, Ambitions and Enabling Strategies interlock to guide our efforts and ensure a cohesive approach, in alignment with regional and national plans, such as the NHS 10-Year Plan, local Integrated Care Board strategies, and the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Acute Federation Clinical Strategy.
Becoming a digitally enabled and mature organisation
We are committed to using digital technology to improve healthcare, making care better for patients, supporting our people, and working more efficiently. By adopting new, patient-focused solutions, we aim to give everyone fair access to services, help patients manage their own care, and make work easier for our teams.
Our Digital Enabling Strategy guides us in using technology to provide the best care, work closely with partners, and make the most of our shared resources. Digital innovation is key to everything we do at DBTH.
Our key deliverables include:
- Developing digital health literacy programmes to help patients confidently use online services and take an active role in their care.
- Expanding shared care records to improve data accessibility and collaboration with our partner organisations.
- Rolling out an electronic patient record (EPR) system across DBTH, enabling healthcare professionals to access accurate, up-to-date patient information to deliver timely and efficient care.
- Implementing artificial intelligence and remote monitoring tools to enhance diagnostic accuracy, enable proactive interventions, and reduce the burden on traditional healthcare settings.
Tackling Health Inequalities
Tackling health inequalities is not just a priority – it is a principle embedded into everything we do. Our ambition is to place health equity at the core of every decision, ensuring that our services proactively address disparities, focus on prevention, and improve outcomes for the most disadvantaged groups. By reducing the impact of lifelong illnesses and promoting early detection, we aim to transform the health landscape for those who need it most.
Success in this area requires robust infrastructure to track progress reliably and share data across organisations. This will allow us to identify areas of greatest need and focus our resources where they can make the most difference. By building capacity within the Trust, we aim to implement targeted initiatives that address the root causes of inequality while actively mitigating the risks of widening disparities.
Our key deliverables include:
- Embedding a framework to ensure every decision we make will be viewed through the lens of its impact on health inequalities.
- Working closely with partners, patients, and local communities to advance initiatives that prioritise prevention and quality improvement, ensuring that our services are inclusive, accessible and effective.
- Rolling out Health Inequalities training to our colleagues and partners.
- Providing support and initiatives to achieve better health outcomes to colleagues who may face inequalities in health.
Improving the Trust’s estate to provide the best care environment
Our ambition is to create high-quality care spaces by improving our buildings, changing how we deliver services, and working more closely with community healthcare, whilst also working towards Net Zero.
Our goal is to provide safe, modern facilities that reduce critical infrastructure risks, improve efficiency and bring services closer together. By designing spaces that maximise the use of new technology and support joined-up care, we can make sure patients get the right care in the right place reducing unnecessary hospital visits and focusing on keeping people well.
Our evolving vision will see some services (including ambulatory and elective care) provided in other settings, improving access to services, supporting our colleagues’ wellbeing, and easing pressure on the busy, aging, challenged DRI site, helping with its future redevelopment.
To achieve this, we must tackle challenges like securing funding, managing building work, and creating strong partnerships across services.
Our key deliverables include:
- Identifying opportunities for national programmes and capital funding.
- Achieving ‘Code Category B’ standards for all buildings, addressing structural risks.
- Delivering care closer to the community, reducing footfall on the DRI site where clinically appropriate.
- Co-locating services to enhance integrated pathways between primary and secondary care.
Becoming a leading centre for research and education
Our ambition will see the organisation become a leading centre for research and education, enhancing patient care and contributing significantly to healthcare innovation and professional development.
Success will be measured by clear outcomes that demonstrate our growth, impact, and readiness to meet the criteria defined by The University Hospitals Association (AUH).
Our key deliverables include:
- Maintaining and expanding student placements, in line with our workforce needs, providing positive experiences for learners, and establishing career pathways for all, including clinical academics.
- Invest in teaching and research facilities, secure additional funding streams, and develop infrastructure.
- Enhancing the research offer each year by expanding clinical trials, commercial opportunities, and funding grants.
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