Liverpool Women’s Hospital: The present and future of gynaecological care

Source: Healthcare Digital

Date :02/09/2008 10:58:27

A state-of-the-art centre of clinical excellence, the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is pushing forward in providing first class care for women and their families.

Written by Ben Lobel and Produced by Paul Radbourne

Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is a national beacon in gynaecological services. It aims to deliver world class care for women and their babies, providing secondary and tertiary gynaecological services from two sites in Liverpool. It is one of only three NHS organisations to hold the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts’ highest rating for clinical safety.

The Foundation’s success in achieving the highest mark demonstrates its excellence in all fields; the Negligence scheme covers factors such as consent procedures, management of health records, infection control and staff induction and training.

The Trust’s other accolades and achievements include having held the Healthcare Commission three-star rating for the last three years, and in 2005 the hospital was the first in Merseyside to attain Foundation status.

Such attainment is the product of lofty goals. The website issues a number of pledges, setting out an agenda that forms the backbone of its success: “We shall deliver clinical excellence in all our services, strong financial performance across all our services, ensure all patients have a positive experience in our care, be the provider of 1st choice facilities for women and their families, and promote our profile as a premier Teaching Hospital and Centre for Research”.

And with its accolades, the centre has certainly lived up to its high standards. It began as a women’s hospital and orphanage in 1796 and became purely a hospital in 1932. Today, in the Northwest, the centre is appreciated as the main source of fertility treatment for both men and women.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

This recognition reflects, among other things, the quality of the staff. The 2000-strong workforce is united by the Trust’s “equality of opportunity” ethos: “It is our aim to enable each member of staff to achieve their full potential in an environment characterised by dignity and mutual respect.”

It continues: “The Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust recognises that we provide services within a wide and diverse community. We believe that our organisation should provide services in an open and non-discriminatory way. We therefore aim to ensure that our patients will have equality of access to care and our workforce will have equality of opportunity”.

It is testament to how the hospital cares for its workers that there are no major staffing issues, unlike many other NHS institutions. Furthermore, the centre boasts the highest proportion of nurse practitioners in the UK and all medical staff receive ongoing training as a mandatory requirement of the Trust.

Responsible for the dedicated workforce is Kim Doherty, who has been the Director of Human Resources since September 2003. She is committed to ensuring the hospital delivers its objectives as a model employer, recruiting and retaining the highly skilled and motivated workforce that defines the centre.

At the helm of the boardroom, the operation is chaired by Ken Morris, who was appointed in 2005 and has had over 20 years experience of working at Executive and Non Executive Director level in a variety of organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit healthcare sectors.

Other key figures on the Board include Medical Director David Richmond FRCOG, who has steered the Trust through numerous changes, including the amalgamation of the previous hospitals into a brand new facility in Toxteth in 1995, and the subsequent merger with the Aintree Centre for Women’s Health in 2000. Director of Group Finance and Accounting is Hoi Yeung, who looks after audit, management and financial accounting, treasury management, tax and risk management.

FINANCIALLY STRONG

Speaking of finances, the Trust’s coffers are in good shape – investment is constant and any excess from the £80 million annual budget is ploughed back into improving services and new equipment; indeed the centre is well known for being a state-of-the-art medical establishment.

And remaining up-to-the-minute is to plan for the future. As a teaching hospital, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is a centre of excellence in the provision of both undergraduate and post-graduate medical education and training, and is associated in this task with the University of Liverpool, Faculty of Medicine. The hospital is also actively involved in the training of nurses, midwives and other professional staff.

Future plans are exciting for the Trust. They will soon be investing into a complete redesign of their gynaecology wing. As part of this they are also appointing a Lean/Six Sigma specialist, aiming to increase commercial expertise. They have also opened a new education centre at the hospital. With its commitment to providing world-class service in its field, dedication to staff and patients and financial strength, the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust can only move forward as a benchmark for gynaecological care.