Equipment

We continue to develop our services and prioritise capital expenditure to ensure our hospitals are able to implement the necessary evidence-based guidance and national guidelines. Our procedure for commissioning equipment requires that all staff that will operate the equipment are trained and their competency assessed to ensure the safety of patients and staff.

Risk assessment

All our activities and working environments are assessed for risk and scored to ensure that any actions required to reduce risk are prioritised. Populating the corporate risk register continues since its inception in 2008, a system which is providing improved risk management information.

Competent staff

Our staff continue to undergo annual mandatory training in a number of key skills such as life support and manual handling. In addition, individual staff needs are identified through appraisals, personal development plans and training needs analyses. These are used to assist in planning and providing relevant education and training to ensure that every staff member is suitably skilled to deliver the required standards of care. The company has piloted and is now rolling out an e-learning package for mandatory training. This has provided consistency in the content and standard of delivery, as well as providing cost-effective flexibility for staff to complete the modules at appropriate times. Staff complete a test at the end of each module. The reporting system on this package is also providing improved training records which are used to demonstrate compliance and facilitate appropriate management of non-compliance. It is expected that all hospitals will have gone live on this system by the end of April 2010. Practical components are being devised for certain modules such as moving and handling training.

A corporate programme for root cause analysis and incident investigation has been developed and is being rolled out at hospitals. This will help improve the quality of response to incidents and facilitate more effective implementation of appropriate action to minimise recurrence.