Published on: 19 September 2018
Leaders at City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust have thanked staff working across the organisation after another increasingly busy and successful year for the Trust.
Members of the NHS Foundation Trust including staff, patients and members of the public, as well as the Trust’s Council of Governors, received presentations from the executive leadership team and reflected on some of the key highlights of 2017/18 including:
- The opening of the new state-of-the-art emergency department at Sunderland Royal Hospital in June 2017 which has cared for record numbers of seriously ill or injured people throughout the year
- A prestigious honour received by the research team at Sunderland Eye Infirmary who were given the ‘Judges’ Special Award’ at the national Ophthalmology Honours in recognition of the service improvement achieved
- The maternity department at Sunderland Royal Hospital being recognised by the Care Quality Commission as the best performing across the whole of the North East and North Cumbria for the care and attention women received in hospital after the birth of their babies.
The meeting gave an opportunity to reflect on a busy and challenging year during which City Hospitals Sunderland and South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust have progressed ‘Path to Excellence’ plans to transform hospital services in Sunderland and South Tyneside in order to meet the future needs of patients and offer the best possible care for local people.
Completely separate to the Path to Excellence Work, City Hospitals Sunderland and South Tyneside have also announced their intention to formally merge to provide long-term operational and financial sustainability and maximise the benefits of becoming one bigger, stronger NHS organisation for the future.
During the meeting, Chief Executive Ken Bremner also outlined the challenges and priorities for the year ahead.
Mr Bremner said: “We have already seen a number of benefits by South Tyneside and Sunderland working together and in the coming months, as we move towards merger, we will build upon these to deliver many more positive changes for patients and staff.
He added: “One of the highlights for me of the past year has been the dedication and commitment shown by our staff in continuing to put patients first, despite another extremely challenging year. At no time was this more evident than during the ‘Beast from the East’ earlier this year when their determination to maintain services in the face of extreme weather conditions made national headlines and me very proud to lead the Trust.”
