Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Welcome to our Annual Report which covers the financial period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. In many ways, this has been an extraordinary and unprecedented year which has changed our lives and services in ways we previously could not have imagined.

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A year during which the COVID pandemic, which has affected us all so deeply, brought unparalleled demand upon our services and which required our team to go continually well above and beyond for patients. I could not be more proud of the way in which team ASPH rose to this challenge, and of the ways in which they cared for patients and, importantly, for each other. Adding to this sense of pride, was the incredible generosity and continuing support given by the community we serve. I would like to extend my deepest and heartfelt thanks to the whole team and to the local community who have provided such exceptional and unwavering support.

During 2020/21, the team have worked both innovatively and at great pace to maintain important services whilst rapidly creating and providing additional capacity such as greatly expanded critical care services. Most importantly however, their overriding ambition has been to help keep patients safe. To do this, we have completely reviewed the way in which we operate, focusing closely on our new North Star Objective to prevent hospital acquired infection. We have also accelerated our work with system partners in the Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership and the ongoing requirement for a collaborative system approach has never been more apparent than during the last year.

Despite these unprecedented challenges, the team have also continued to make significant progress against the delivery of large scale transformational projects some of which were already in train such as the roll out of an electronic patient record system in partnership with the Royal Surrey Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and others which arose from the emerging pandemic.

Andy Field, Chairman