Sussex Premier Health celebrates its first anniversary of providing healthcare under the ownership of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust on 1 April 2023.
Sussex Premier Health, now a private division of the trust, offers inpatient and outpatient services for a wide range of specialities, including orthopaedics, general surgery and ophthalmology. With its own imaging and physiotherapy departments, it offers patients a choice for local private healthcare.
Having this private division puts the trust in the relatively unique position of having dedicated private facilities under the umbrella of an NHS organisation – without using NHS resources. Any profits generated are reinvested back into the trust.
Anyone can access services at Sussex Premier Health, whether they have private medical insurance, are self-funding or via NHS patient choice. The private division is also attractive to our consultant body, which helps with recruitment and retention of valued and skilled clinicians.
To mark the anniversary we spoke to Kate Mannion, Outpatients Manager.
“Working at SPH is lovely,” Kate says. “It’s such a nice environment to work in and all my colleagues are so friendly and supportive. I feel like I’m able to give time to my patients and ensure a great patient experience.”
Being a division of the trust means SPH can support us by offering, for example, un-utilised theatre lists to help shorten waiting times for surgical procedures.
“It is nice to be a part of the NHS,” continues Kate. “It feels right to be able to assist them, especially after COVID. By taking patients at SPH we’re helping to clear the backlog left from the pandemic.”
Part of Kate’s role sees her working on and implementing innovation within her department.
“We have access to so much training and there are really excellent facilities available such as the equipment library,” Kate explains. “There are development opportunities for both SPH staff like me and trust staff from the NHS side who may want to experience working in a private setting.
“Over the last year we have expanded the services available in our outpatient department and we’re trying to grow our capabilities further. We’re doing our best to support the NHS and most recently treated a poorly patient in outpatients rather than send them to the Emergency Department. The patient was very happy and the outcome was better for everyone involved.”
As a part of the trust, SPH are also able to advertise bank shifts on Healthroster, the NHS’s employee scheduling software.
“I would really recommend working at SPH,” says Kate. “I get to spend time with my patients and ensure they have a good outcome. I also find supporting the consultants with their private practice interesting. We get some lovely feedback from our patients and it makes me feel proud to know I’ve done a good job.”