Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Director of Medical Education

Dr Peter Martin

Clinical Tutor

Mr Arshad Khaleel

Foundation Training Programme Director(s)

Mr Tayo Johnson - F1 Lead
Mr Vincent O’Neill – F2 Lead

Careers Tutor(s)

Mr Arshad Khaleel

Medical Education Manager

Mrs Angela Langwith-Green

Medical Staffing Officer

Debbie Barton

Foundation Programme Administrator(s)

Mrs Ros King

Postgraduate Centre

There are dedicated education and learning centres on each site – the Education Centre located at the heart of Ashford Hospital and the Oliver Plunkett Postgraduate Education Centre located close by the Duchess of Kent Wing of St Peter's Hospital.

Accommodation

The Trust works in partnership with Viridian Housing, A2 Dominion Group, and Genesis Housing Association to offer staff access to residential accommodation.

The accommodation, which is compliant to Health Service Circular 2000/36 -‘Living and working conditions for hospital doctors in training’ is provided by Viridian Housing and is located on the St Peter’s Hospital site, Chertsey. It provides a bedroom within a fully furnished two bedroom flat, sharing the kitchen, bathroom and lounge with one other person. The rent is inclusive of utilities and council tax and changes annually to take account of the annual rent and council tax increase.

If you require your partner, or partner and children to be accommodated with you the Trust will try to assist by providing self-contained accommodation at Sandgates, in a two bedroom flat. This is located about one mile from St Peter’s Hospital.

Our partners also provide other types of accommodation, from single rooms in shared houses, to 2 bedroom flats.

Our partners require one month’s rent payable in advance, and both the A2 Dominion Group and Genesis Housing Association also require a deposit of one month’s rent too. Payment of the rental for the accommodation is normally made via payroll deductions or standing order.

Laundry facilities are provided, for which charges are applicable, and individuals may make their own arrangements for telephones and access to the internet subject to the conditions of tenancy.

If you require further information about accommodation please contact the Human Resources Department on telephone 01784 884331 for contact details.

Social activities

Foundation Doctors at Ashford and St Peter's Foundation Doctors at Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals enjoy an active social life. There are frequent mess parties, a summer ball, Christmas Party and various sporting activities organised by the doctors themselves.

Doctors' mess

The Trust has a doctors’ mess on the St Peter’s site.

Library facilities

The Library and Knowledge Service enables staff to find the best evidence to support patient care. There are two libraries conveniently located next to the education centres at both hospital sites, offering access to a comprehensive range of hardcopy and electronic resources including exam preparation texts and BMJ Case Reports. Literature search training sessions are available on a monthly basis, including sessions aimed at doctors carrying out clinical audits. Full details of the service are available on the KnowledgeNet website which keeps staff up-to-date on latest resource developments. www.knowledgenet.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk. There is also a mobile version of our web pages.

IT facilities

The Library and Knowledge Service provides computer rooms in the libraries on both hospital sites which enable access to the trust intranet and internet, there is 24 hour access to these computers. These computers also have Reference Manager software.

Other facilities (Recreational or otherwise)

In addition to co-ordinating the regular internal teaching programmes for our own doctors in training, the Centres at Ashford & St Peter's provide facilities and administrative support for:
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS); Advanced Life Support (ALS); Paediatric Intermediate Life Support (PILS); Royal College of Physicians MRCP Part II (PACES); GP Intensive Course (GPIC); New born Life Support Course (NLS).

Childcare:
The Trust operates a nursery and play-scheme on both sites. The Day Nurseries offer places for babies from 3 months up to 5 years and are open 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday. (7:00 am by arrangement). The charges for the Day Nursery are dependent on salary banding. Please contact Dawn Hunt, Childcare Manager to ascertain current rates. The play schemes are open during the main school holidays and half terms for which a flat rate is charged.

The Trust works in conjunction with Salary Exchange to offer staff a more flexible way to meet the costs of childcare under which part of their salary can be given up or ‘sacrificed’ in exchange for Childcare Vouchers. Within specified limits, these vouchers are non- taxable and exempt from National Insurance Contributions and therefore represent a saving for employees who receive them as part of their total employment pack.

Employee Assistance Programme:
The Trust offers an Employee Assistance Programme which provides staff and their immediate family with access to independent advice, information and specialist counselling and support. The free confidential line is available 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, and an online service is also available.

Local amenities/attractions

Working with local gyms, health clubs and other businesses in the area the Trust is able to offer discounted memberships, tickets and other services to staff, which are regularly publicised.

Transport links

The two sites – Ashford Hospital, Ashford, Middlesex and St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey – lie eleven miles apart separated by the River Thames and the M25 London orbital motorway. All trainees are based at St Peter’s Hospital.

Parking arrangements

Car parks on both of the hospital sites are split between those reserved for patients/visitors and those specifically for staff members.

Demand for car parking is high and at peak times parking spaces can be difficult to find.

The Trust operates two types of patient/visitor car parks; pay and display, where users pay upon entry, and pay on foot where users pay at the end of their visit.

Both Trust and non-Trust staff parking on the hospital sites have to pay for their parking. There is an annual permit charge of £20 plus a daily parking rate based upon staff bandings; this ranges from 50p to £1.50 per day. Staff have the option of either paying a standard monthly rate or by paying using the scratchcard system. All enquires about car parking should be made to john.sermon@asph.nhs.uk or to the Travel Plan and Security office on extension 3675 or 01932 723675 if calling externally or extension 2228 or 01932 722228 if calling externally.

Accolades/achievements of the trust

In December 2010 Ashford and St Peter’s became a Foundation Trust, an endorsement of the hard work and commitment made by staff to provide high quality, safe care for patients. The Trust continues to develop specialist services - such as bariatric and vascular surgery - and has recently been accredited as a national screening centre for AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) on belhalf of the Surrey Vascular Network.

The Trust has also recently celebrated a year without a hospital acquired MRSA bacteraemia (one of only a handful of hospitals to do so) and continues to provide high quality care and treatment demonstrated by improving patient survey results and continued achievement of national targets and indicators.

The Trust has recently been announced as the preferred partner for Epsom Hospital and is developing its plans to become a bigger, three hospital Foundation Trust with a potential go-live date of 1st April 2013.

Any additional information

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust is a medium sized district general hospital service operating from two sites – Ashford near Staines and St Peter’s near Chertsey, serving a population of around 380,000. The Trust employs over 3,300 staff making it one of the largest employers in the local area after Heathrow Airport, with an annual income of around £227m. Further information about the Trust can be found at www.ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk.

Induction/shadowing arrangements

All new Foundation Doctors commencing at Ashford at St Peter’s Hospitals are invited to attend a Pre-employment screening day.F1s are requested to attend a period of extended Trust Induction and shadowing of the out-going F1 doctors. In addition, an ILS Course and an Acute Illness Management Study Day are held for all the new Foundation Year 1s prior to their commencement.

Educational and clinical supervision

An Educational Supervisor is allocated to each Foundation Programme doctor for the whole of their year here at the Trust to maintain an overview of development and progress of the doctor within the year of their training. A Clinical Supervisor is also allocated for each four month placement. For the first four month placement Foundation Programme doctors will usually have a combined Educational and Clinical Supervisor

Teaching programme

At Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals there are 48 Foundation Year 1 and 42 Foundation Year 2 posts. These posts are all approved by the KSS Deanery and Foundation School. F1 posts are made up of posts in General Medicine (22), General Surgery (13), Paediatrics (3), Psychiatry (2) Clinical Radiology (2) Trauma & Orthopaedics (3) and Anaesthetics (3). All F1 trainees will be on one year programmes in Chertsey, made up of three 4 month placements. All trainees will take part in the Foundation Year training programmes, directed by the Head of Postgraduate Medical Education, Dr Peter Martin and Foundation Programme Year 1 Lead, Mr Tayo Johnson and Mr Vincent O’Neill, Year 2 Lead. These will include formal teaching sessions, directed and self-directed personal learning, structured appraisals and assessments. F1s will have weekly protected teaching and F2s fortnightly protected teaching.

F2 posts are made up of posts in General Medicine (4), Acute Medicine (3), Paediatrics (3), Neonatal Intensive Care (2) Trauma & Orthopaedics (8), General Surgery (3), Obstetrics & Gynaecology (5), Emergency Medicine (8), General Practice (4) and Psychiatry (2).

Tasters

F1 and F2 doctors are encouraged to undertake "Taster" sessions in other specialties, up to a maximum of five days in the year. "Tasters" in other Trusts will be considered when the Specialty is not available at the Trust.

Simulation

All F1 doctors take part in two Simulation Training days and all F2s take part in one Simulation Training day.

Foundation doctor forums

All F1 doctors are encouraged to contribute and take part in the following local forums:

- Foundation Local Faculty Group
- Medical Junior Doctors Forum
- Surgical Junior Doctors Forum

Any additional information

Over the past three years all Foundation Doctors have been given a one to one mid- term review with the Postgraduate Medical Education Team. The feedback from more than 99% of these has been very positive on the training received. An End of Placement survey is carried out after each four month post is completed.