The department, known as Estates and Facilities, were faced with numerous challenges back in 2016 following the departure of a number of senior staff within the directorate. However, thanks to the dedication of the new senior management team and departmental colleagues, they were able to not only stabilise services, but have also taken huge steps to introduce several quality improvement programmes that have enhanced patient experience.
In recognition of these efforts, the service has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award as “Team of the Year”, which will be presented by the Health Estates and Facilities Management Association (HEFMA) on Thursday 16 May.
The nomination identifies how the senior management team enhanced the performance of their department in many crucial ways, with significant progress made in areas such as service delivery, staff engagement and quality improvements.
For example, the Trust saw a dramatic increase in its Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) ratings. Based on patient feedback, these scores are used evaluate the condition, safety and cleanliness of hospital facilities. In previous years, DBTH was ranked as one of the lowest performing hospitals in this regard, but thanks to the collective efforts of the team, the Trust is now one of the country’s top 20 performers.
Complimenting this, the senior team made the decision to introduce a new role into the department, which was created to deal with reactive estates jobs. Called Patient Environment Assistants, these new members of staff focus on everyday tasks and work alongside estates engineers and have proved to be absolutely invaluable, lessening the maintenance workload so that engineers can get on with more pressing tasks.
Dr Kirsty Edmondson Jones, Director of Estates and Facilitates said: “I am so proud of the many successes that the senior management team has achieved in the short time since being in post. The dedication and commitment of the team has led the directorate to make some significant improvement to the quality of the services delivered, despite the challenging circumstances they have faced.”
Speaking about these achievements Chief Executive of DBTH, Richard Parker OBE, said: ‘’I am delighted that our Estates and Facilities colleagues have been recognised by HEFMA for their achievements over the last couple of years. In spite of some significant challenges, the senior management team have truly gone above and beyond to deliver improvements in the services they provide across the Trust. They really exemplify our organisational values and could not be more deserving of this finalist place and I hope that the are successful at the awards ceremony.’’
The winner in each category will be announced at a special Gala Awards Dinner on the evening of May 16 during the 2019 HEFMA Leadership.