November 2010
Surrey health provider is ‘runaway winner’ of Employee Ownership Initiative award
Central Surrey Health has won the Employee Ownership Initiative category in the 2010 Philip Baxendale Awards. The award was presented to joint MD Tricia McGregor at the annual Employee Ownership Association Conference in Manchester on Thursday 18th November 2010.
The award recognises the contribution that Central Surrey Health’s Efficiency Programme P2 has made to furthering employee ownership with the organisation. The judges commented: “Central Surrey Health’s submission was the runaway winner in this category. Its Transformation and Efficiency Programme proved to be a tremendous example of a business improvement initiative that involved all employees and generated a very successful outcome. The organisation faced tough budget cuts and took a holistic approach to build a stronger, more robust organisation that would not only counter the cuts, but would be better placed to face the future.”
Central Surrey Health launched P2 in April 2009 in response to funding reductions as a result of the national financial crisis. P2 was designed to increase efficiency and remove waste so Central Surrey Health could continue delivering the same services despite a reduction in income.
Eighteen months later, Central Surrey Health’s services are more efficient, streamlined and standardised, resulting in quicker and better care for patients. For example, it has reduced average waiting time for physiotherapy by 30% and increased the number of patients seen by its physiotherapists by 10% since April 2010. Average waiting times for non-urgent patients are down from over 13 weeks to less than seven weeks today. Tricia McGregor, joint MD of Central Surrey Health, says: “Being an employee-owned social enterprise means we can do things differently. Our efficiency programme, P2, puts us at the leading edge of this kind of change, which is unprecedented in community services. Being short-listed for this national award is proof that by – by putting our clinicians in charge of driving through these changes – it is possible to maintain and improve community health services for less.”