Job Description
Chief People Officer, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
United Kingdom
Join Team West Herts and help our staff shine!
About West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is a forward-looking and progressive acute trust. It is continually striving to deliver high quality care to our communities. WHTH is on a journey of transformation which began when it moved out of ‘special measures’ in 2018. This was followed by further positive Care Quality Commission ratings, a raft of national awards, low vacancy rates and increased staff satisfaction scores.
WHTH provides healthcare services to a core catchment population of approximately half a million people living in West Hertfordshire and the surrounding area. Overall, the population served is relatively affluent, but there are some areas of deprivation. The Trust also provides a range of more specialist services to a wider population, serving residents of North London, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and East Hertfordshire.
The Trust has a workforce of almost 5,000 people, across three hospital sites. We are one of the biggest employers in the area. We treat nearly a million people each year, including over 150,000 people attending emergency services, nearly half a million via outpatient clinics, and about 4,600 babies delivered by our maternity services.
Our Hospitals
Services are run over three hospitals: Watford General Hospital, St Albans City Hospital and Hemel Hempstead Hospital. Outpatient physiotherapy is provided at Jacketts Field in Abbots Langley.
Watford General Hospital is at the heart of our acute emergency services - the core location for inpatient care, and for all patients who need the specialist emergency facilities (such as intensive care) of a major district general hospital.
St Albans City Hospital is our elective care centre. It provides a wide range of planned surgical care (both inpatient low risk surgery and day-case) and a wide range of outpatient and diagnostic services with more than 100,000 outpatient appointments. The St Albans site is being developed into an Elective Care Hub for the local system.
Hemel Hempstead Hospital offers other local healthcare facilities such as diagnostic services, including MRI and cold pathology, as well as an outpatient service that sees more than 100,000 patients per year. The site has an exciting future as a multi-specialty base for planned medical care. Redevelopment options are being explored with the local council with a view to creating new facilities in the town centre as a joint project with council and other health partners.
Trust Success Stories
Trust redevelopment - confirmation of funding for the preferred option to build a completely new hospital at Watford which will replace existing clinical buildings, including Princess Michael of Kent building, the Women’s and Children’s building and the A&E wing. Redevelopment will also be taking place at St Albans City Hospital and Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
In December 2021, we realised our 'teaching hospital' ambition and changed our name to West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Gaining teaching hospital status reflects the dedicated work of many teams and individuals who have set the standard for delivering high quality training, learning and education at all levels of the workforce. We work with several universities on training and educating a wide range of healthcare professionals. We have appointed a new non-executive director from UCL's medical school focus on this important aspect of our role.
In 2023, we hosted a visit from the Prime Minister who undertook some clinical shifts, he spent time with our teams and innovative virtual hospital. He also spoke about his support and enthusiasm surrounding our redevelopment plans for the new hospital.
Trust staff successfully implemented a new electronic patient record in November 2021.
We have received national recognition for our pioneering work on the ‘virtual hospital’ for Covid-19; one of the consultants who helped to establish this model of care is now leading a roll out of virtual care across the East of England region and another was awarded an MBE. Our work in this field continues at pace and attracts significant interest from other hospitals nationally and internationally.
We published our clinical strategy in 2021 reflecting our position as a thriving organisation with most of our services rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission. This clinical strategy sets out how we propose to organise, deliver and develop our services over the next five years, with ambitions around personalised care, collaborative working and consistently good care based on evidence and best practice. Full version here and summary version here .
Please take note of the reference number found under section “How to apply”. This is needed for us to process any application.
We have developed four key aims to support the delivery of our vision.
“the very best care for every patient, every day”.