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QUALITY REPORT 2017/18

“A HEALTHIER FUTURE FOR

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE”

PART 1: STATEMENT ON

QUALITY FROM LOUISE
SHEPHERD, CHIEF

EXECUTIVE

I would like to use this year’s statement on quality as
an opportunity to pay tribute to the exceptional team of
people that makes Alder Hey such a special place. This
year marks my 10th as Chief Executive here and during
that time it has been my privilege to work alongside so
many outstanding colleagues, all of whom dedicate
their lives to improving the health and wellbeing of
children and young people. This report summarises
some, although not all, of that effort.

A notable example of this incredible focus in the
last year has been the drive to improve the early
identification and treatment of deteriorating patients
and in particular children with sepsis. The whole
hospital effort to deliver our new clinical pathway for this
life-threatening infection, which is notoriously difficult to
detect early on in young children, has been superlative
and has been shared and replicated across the country. In February 2018 the Trust underwent an inspection by
the Care Quality Commission. The inspectors’ feedback
It also serves to illustrate the progress we have at the end of the visit included an observation about
continued to make in cementing a quality improvement the respectful relationships they found everywhere
culture throughout the organisation. A key feature of this between staff, patients and families, the pride that staff
is a genuine willingness to learn from those occasions radiated when talking about their services and above
when things don’t quite go according to plan. I am all, the universal focus on the child from everyone they
immensely proud of the way in which staff at Alder Hey met. These qualities cannot be manufactured but lie at
demonstrate real openness and transparency, creating the heart of what it means to work at Alder Hey.
and nurturing the right environment for reflection and
ultimately, improvements and innovation in practice. As Chief Executive, I commend our Quality Report for
2017/18 to you. I am confident that the information set
The ambition we have to develop innovation in out in the document is accurate and a fair reflection of
children’s healthcare through technology has continued the key issues and priorities that clinical teams have
to gain momentum in the last year. In the summer our developed within their services. The Board remains fully
innovation team launched the Alder Play App, which committed to supporting those teams in every way they
aims to enhance the experience of our patients through can to continuously improve care for our children and
distraction, reward and familiarisation with the hospital young people.
prior to their visit, using a medium which is already
part of most children’s everyday lives. The App was Signed:
born from the vision of one of our amazing clinicians
Louise Shepherd
way back in 2012 and takes us one step closer to our
dream of world leading, digitally enabled child-centred LOUISE SHEPHERD CBE
facilities. Chief Executive

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust 81 Annual Report & Accounts 2017/18