Busy year for hospital (From Salisbury Journal)

Busy year for hospital

4:09pm Tuesday 25th September 2012 in News By Jill Harding

IT has been an eventful year for Salisbury District Hospital with the resignation of its chief executive, the opening of new neonatal intensive care and mobile chemotherapy units, 2,600 babies born, 42,453 patients treated in A&E and 884,000 meals served.

At the hospital’s AGM on Monday, chairman Luke March praised the staff, 600 volunteers, and fundraisers and said the trust had enjoyed a successful year despite “significant challenges”.

Referring to the recent departure of chief executive Caspar Ridley after six months in the job, he said: “After a period of reflection over the summer months Caspar decided the role of chief executive did not suit his many talents and he resigned.

“The board is delighted that Peter Hill could take over as interim chief executive – not for the first time.”

Mr March said the NHS faces a period of great change with the Health and Social Care Act becoming law, PCTs being replaced by GP commissioning groups and the new Healthwatch Organisation being established in place of the Patient Involvement Network.

The hospital has met all of its targets for waiting times – including A&E and cancer – and Mr March said it had performed well in the “almost weekly” inspections.

Patient satisfaction levels are high, there were good results in the staff satisfaction survey and hospitals teams have won a host of national and regional awards.

There have been four cases of MRSA in the last year – which Mr March described as “four too many” and 44 cases of the superbug c-difficile.

Areas for improvement include the care of patients with dementia and learning difficulties, reducing noise levels at night and improving response times to call bells.