A Celebration

Date: 17/01/2020

Now 2020 is well and truly underway it’s time to look back at 2019, which saw some great achievements for us and for our staff, including the opening of our new location within the Kent & Canterbury Hospital and a nomination for the Trust Inspirational Leader Award for Vicky Smith, Hospital Manager at Ashford.

The opening of Canterbury late last year means that we now have locations at 3 of the 5 EKHUFT hospitals, making it easier than ever to access our services. The latest location based within the Emergency Care unit at Kent and Canterbury Hospital offers private consultations and treatments in Orthopaedics, Urology, Gynaecology, Health-screening, Aesthetics, Rheumatology, HCOOP and General Surgery.

With customer focus and patient care being at the heart of our business 2019 saw us pledge our support to the #hellomynameis campaign, an initiative that advocates the importance of a confident introduction as the first step to providing compassionate care. The campaign was spearheaded by Dr Kate Granger, a hospital consultant from Yorkshire with terminal cancer, who became frustrated with the number of staff who failed to introduce themselves to her when she was in hospital. Dr Granger asked hospital staff to make a pledge to introduce themselves to all patients in order to "make a human connection between one human being who is suffering and vulnerable, and another human being who wishes to help." The campaign is relevant to all of us at Spencer Private Hospitals and by making a conscious effort to introduce ourselves the first time we meet somebody, we are taking the first steps to improving the patient's experience of the care that we are providing to them.

At Spencer we’re proud of all our staff and for good reason, but one member of staff has had such a positive impact that they were nominated for the Trust Inspirational Leader Award. Vicky Smith our Hospital Manager at Ashford was nominated by her colleagues who stated ‘Vicky is compassionate, caring and patient at all times. She always has time for everybody and regularly organises meetings and communications’. This is a fantastic recommendation and testament to Vicky’s leadership skills.

For the seventh year in a row our PLACE (Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment) results are above the national average, showing our continued commitment to maintaining a clean and safe environment for our patients. You can see our results below.

2019 also saw us taking part in a range of fund-raising activities, all in the name of charity. We hosted coffee mornings in aid of Macmillan and had a Christmas jumper day in aid of Save the Children – But the highlight had to be ‘It’s a Knockout’, which we took part in for the second consecutive year. It saw a team of brave Spencer staff tackle a large inflatable obstacle course to raise money for Pilgrims Hospice; and they had a lot of fun doing it!