Healthcare Services

The facility was suffering from a lack of investment, and was earmarked for substantial redevelopment by the Strategic Health Authority. Facility and estate contractors and NHS staff were seemingly working to different agendas resulting in an absence of team spirit.

The hospital had two facility supplier organisations, each operating under its own, totally different culture: one supplying the portering and cleaning staff, another handled buildings maintenance and estate management. NHS in-house personnel were providing the staff and visitor catering and the security was subcontracted.

In early 2004, determined to regenerate the hospital its operators, the NNUH , decided to put the management of all the facilities out to tender. The NNUH wanted a single contractor with which to work in partnership, to develop the services in a way that would reflect the homely, ‘family’ ethos of Cromer Hospital.

Following a rigorous selection process, Norfolk County Services (NCS) was awarded an initial three-year contract, commencing October 2004, to turn the neglected facilities management at the hospital around.

With the announcement of the award of the contract, the company responsible for estate management left the site; as a result NCS actually began providing services in this area with substantial support from the NNUH Facilities Officer from the 1st September 2004.

The primary task was to win the hearts and minds of the staff, through a process of moving towards an enhanced model of support for staff to deliver the FM services. .  There was dissatisfaction with catering menus, inadequate parking and, with lone-working staff, security. 

In order to provide a point of direct contact for NHS staff and management, NCS immediately appointed a fulltime, onsite Facilities Manager, and a permanent estates operative to provide prompt attention to building and grounds maintenance problems. These appointments formed the basis of the new structure that has introduced effective planning and reporting procedures.

Existing contract staff from the cleaning contractor (fourteen cleaning staff and four porters) together with six catering staff previously employed by the NHS were transferred to NCS, and the service level agreement with the incumbent security firm was renegotiated, thereby ensuring continuity in key areas from day one.

In the words of Mark Page, Concessions Manager at NNUH:

“NCS’s robust consultation process ensured that staff were quickly reassured and felt a part of the realigned team.”

Addressing the dissatisfaction with the restaurant and the menu options, NCS’s Catering Division Management began by organising the production of new, balanced-diet cuisine; giving greater variety and using locally produced ingredients wherever possible. The content of the menus is now changed on a regular basis, meeting criteria set by the governments ‘Better Hospital Food’ initiative.

Such changes have resulted in visible improvements to staff moral, and in visitor and patient impressions of service; evidenced by catering financial turnover having doubled in the first eight months of the contract.

Many of the physical improvements made at Cromer can be tracked back to the presence of fulltime on-site management, which ensures that there is now a responsive element to services in all areas. Building maintenance had suffered from poor maintenance schedules, with workshops conditions totally inappropriate for the service levels required and record keeping practically non-existent.

Planned Maintenance Programmes that form the cornerstone of the buildings and grounds management have now been implemented. Routine Task Safety Method Statements have been created to highlight all checks and inspections necessary. All service calls are logged, prioritised and signed off when completed and then reported at monthly review meetings to the Trust. Any work arising from pre-planned preventative maintenance work, or from reactive calls, is logged and pursued to a conclusion.

At the start of the new contract Cromer Hospital invested in redecoration and the refitting of all toilet and corridor areas, and the installation of an improved external security lighting scheme. Planned upgrading programmes, and ongoing management of all estates issues, ensure that the building fabric improvements gained at the start of the contract are being maintained, and regularly enhanced. The effect is a dramatic increase in perception of the tangible improvements in facilities service.

Two months into the contract, an internal review showed significant improvement in morale and facilities presentation.  An independent Patient Environment Assessment Team (PEAT) audit followed, evaluating every aspect of the hospital’s appearance and management – parking, signage, reception, building appearance, ward and corridor cleanliness  - from a patient and visitor perspective.  The auditors endorsed the new partnership’s achievements, saying that conditions had been completely turned around from poor to excellent in a remarkably short space of time.

Matron, Sue Tuck, says that the new contract was like a “breath of fresh air.”

“Having a permanent onsite manager who is addressing issues quickly and effectively, has vastly improved the overall look and feel of the hospital.  We are now a team that is working together, with renewed self-esteem and enthusiasm.”

“We no longer feel that we are working at a distance, we are now a true partnership where everyone is committed to best practice in service delivery. Not just with day-to-day matters but, for example with the planned new dialysis and MRI facilities; we now have total confidence that all the services will be in place when the units are delivered, and that they will be up and running on time.”

NCS introduced a Quality Management System into Cromer Hospital when it won the contract. The Quality Management System covers a help desk facility, estates, utilities, pest control, grounds, catering, cleaning, linen/laundry, portering, waste management, security and car parking. Lloyds Register Quality Assurance independently assessed the Quality Management System in April 2005, and approved the System to the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Standard.

Cromer Hospital is already a vibrant facility again with a strong sense of team spirit.  Staff are motivated by clear evidence of implementation of the extensive refurbishment programmes;