The Outpatient entrance at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) will move from Monday (29 July) as part of construction works for the new hospital building.

We would like to thank colleagues, patients and visitors for their support and understanding at this time and we would like to assure you that we will do all that we can to minimise disruption.

The move will enable works to begin on the build of a new four storey hospital expansion – this is a milestone for the Hospitals Transformation Programme (HTP).

To maintain hospital operations, the entrance to the Treatment Centre will become the main entrance to the hospital during the works. All other entrances will remain open.

A new entrance will be made available for the public to enter the hospital opposite the main staff car park leading to RSH Level 0 (basement services).

Signage will be in place at the hospital to help patients and visitors navigate their way around the site and colleagues will be on hand to direct and answer patient and visitor queries.

Patients and visitors should continue to check our Trust’s website (http://www.sath.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/getting-to-us/royal-shrewsbury-hospital/) for the most up-to-date information on accessing the hospital and for parking arrangements.

This week we launched our annual Trust Celebratory Awards in partnership with the Shropshire Star and we are asking communities to nominate their hospital heroes.

It is a great opportunity to recognise and celebrate the fantastic contribution that our staff, volunteers and partners make, supporting patients, families and communities, whether in frontline teams or working behind the scenes, and we would love you to get involved.
Why not nominate one of our colleagues or teams for the wonderful work that they do. You can find out how in the Shropshire Star and online (www.trustawards.co.uk/shropshirestar).
The closing date for nominations is Friday 16 August. Nominations will be shortlisted and followed by a public vote, so you can choose your winner who will be announced at our virtual staff awards on Friday 15 November.

We are always looking at improving the hospital experience and our patients are important in helping us to shape the future of our services. I would like to thank those patients and colleagues who have been involved in a review of thousands of hospital appointment letters to ensure the information we send to our patients is clear and simple.

A “task and finish team”, which includes patient representatives, reviewed and standardised all inpatient and outpatient letters from our Trust.

The project was started as part of the rollout of a new patient administration system to ensure all patient letters sent out by the Trust are accessible. As a result, around 7,000 different letters were reviewed and reduced to 150, with the project still ongoing to review letters in other systems used for patient correspondence across the Trust.

It is so important that our patients’ voices are heard and that the information we are sharing is clear and easy to understand.

The Trust recognises that patient information is an ongoing programme of work and are always looking for suggestions and ways to improve the information patients receive. Patients are welcome and encouraged to become a member of the Patient and Carer Experience Panel. If you would like to be involved, please contact sath.patientexperience@nhs.net