University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust is more than a hospital

We are one of the UK's largest teaching Trusts responsible for managing University Hospital in Coventry and the Hospital of St. Cross in Rugby, which between them serve a population of over a million people. We employ more than 10,000 staff and deliver acute healthcare to the population of Coventry and Rugby as well as more regional specialist services. The Trust was first established in 1992 and expanded to include Rugby in 1998. We are the principal teaching hospital for Warwick Medical School with whom we work in close partnership to develop innovative medical education programmes and clinical research.  In 2021/22 we served:

• 696,852 people who attended an outpatient appointment
• 226,238 people who were cared for in our Accident and Emergency department (A&E) including those in specialist children’s A&E
• 170,682 inpatients and day cases
• 5,630 births
• 35,646 patients operated in state-of-the-art theatres

We are on an incredible journey and have already achieved so much in delivering great healthcare. Our five-year partnership with the Virginia Mason Institute and the establishment of our improvement system – UHCWi – has given us the tools and techniques to bring about change and deliver improvements to the quality of care we provide for our patients.

Covid – a springboard for transformation

Responding to the Covid pandemic showed us all the benefits of working in partnership for the people of Coventry and Warwickshire. Reflecting on the impact that Covid had on us as individuals, our families and those people who are vulnerable, there has never been a better time for us to ensure that we place more emphasis on keeping people fit and healthy. Many people have fed back to us the life changing impact living through the pandemic and their promise to take this opportunity to make long lasting lifestyle improvements.

The changing health and care environment

We continue to build and strengthen resilience within our communities and be more proactive in reaching out and ensuring people can access the services they need. We recognise that we can not achieve this on our own and are working with our partners to create more joined up services to support the health and wellbeing of out population. Changes to the way health and care services are organised as a result of the new Health and Care Act will support us to do this. This transition to care is more proactive, preventative and centred around individuals’ needs presents us with significant challenges and opportunities. Effective collaboration with partners is vital to overcoming these challenges and delivering the best care for our patients.

Building better health together

Our organisational strategy 2022 – 2030 sets out the next part of our journey. Our commitment to ‘better never stops’ has never been more important, and using feedback from our staff, the people using our services and the organisations we work alongside, helps us to make continuous improvements to our services that the people we care for and their families rely upon. Our strategy forms the framework from which our people and services work towards to achieve our vision of being a national and international leader in healthcare rooted in our communities. It is the basis of our annual corporate objectives and our team and personal objectives up to 2030. It is the golden threat between our actions and ambitions.

Our vision for health

Transforming and improving health for Coventry and Warwickshire requires compassionate and collaborative leadership. For us, leadership means supporting those around us to achieve and recognise their strengths so we can all excel. Above all, it means leading the delivery of outstanding, joined up care for our communities.

The diagram below summarises our leadership approach with the patient first in all that we do and how everything connects without care for our patients. Our vision captures our ambition to deliver world-leading care for our communities and our five purposes set out how we will achieve this. We lead by living our values in every interaction with our patients, people and partners. We will invest in enabling areas to improve care quality, treatment outcomes, and the experience of our patients and their families. Our commitment to improvement through the use of our UHCWi methodology continues driving us forward as an organisation as we know ‘better never stops’.

Our Stories

A word from the CMO

Hello my name is Kiran Patel, Chief Medical Officer Whether you are interested in management, research, innovation or teaching and training, we have facilities for you to utilise and benefit from at UHCW. UHCW is a forward thinking organisation with top class facilities and enormously talented staff. The opportunities to grow and excel in your field while at UHCW are huge whether you are at the start of your career or whether you fancy a change as an established consultant. Our primary aim is to offer patient centred safe care that is effective and efficient. We run University Hospital, Coventry and the Hospital of St Cross, Rugby, and maintain a strong focus on providing high-quality, safe and effective patient care. We have a national and international reputation for providing both emergency and elective care and specialise in cardiology, neurosurgery, stroke, joint replacements, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and maternal health, diabetes and kidney transplants. The complex, tertiary services such as cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery and renal transplant are at UH and elective orthopaedics and rehabilitation services are at Rugby. UHCW is one of the busiest Trauma Centres in the country and with this comes a busy hospital. Our ED sees up to 600 patients on some days and our 33 elective theatres are always full to capacity. We are a Cancer Centre and have a popular midwifery led birthing unit alongside our Labour Ward. Our Surgical Training Centre is world-renowned and we hold multidisciplinary national and international courses here such as difficult airway, trauma and neurosurgery. We are the first hospital in Europe to implement digital reporting in Histopathology. We have led nationally recognised change programmes such as ‘Getting Emergency Care Right’ and are one of the five hospitals in the UK to be paired with Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle, USA. We have research collaborations with Warwick University and Coventry University. We are a teaching hospital with medical students from Warwick Medical School and have superb teaching facilities. We have management and leadership training for junior doctors, a thriving weekly Grand Round and an Innovation Hub for everyone to use. You could benefit from all of this and more at UHCW. Our values are Respect, Openness, Compassion, Pride, Partnership, Improve and Learn, and behaviours reflecting these values are very important to us. I encourage you to become a part of UHCW and like me; you will fall in love with this place and its people.

Working and Living in Coventry

Coventry is located in the centre of England and has excellent road, train and air transport links across the country from Manchester to London. This enables out staff to live across the region with many staff travelling in from within Coventry, Rugby, Leicester, Solihull, Leamington Spa, Kenilworth, Warwick, Birmingham, and surrounding villages. There are two major international airports at Birmingham and East Midlands Airport which are approximately 40 minute drive. The M1, M6 and M69 are all accessible providing direct routes to major cities including Birmingham (40minutes) and London (1½ hour) via car.

Coventry is the 13th largest city in the UK with a rich history and heritage. Along with neighbouring towns and villages there are a wealth of historical sites and areas of interest to visit. The city and surrounding areas have a diverse population with communities from a wide range of cultural backgrounds with a variety of local community groups and organisations you can join. Coventry City Council is overseeing a massive investment programme which includes a new £59m central business quarter and a £300m City Centre South project which will include additional shops, a cinema, hotel, apartments and a multi-storey car park. There is a wealth of entertainment in Coventry and the surrounding areas, including restaurants, award winning museums, galleries, parks and gardens. The Ricoh Arena hosts concerts, exhibitions, conferences and sporting events. It is the home of Premiership Rugby team Wasps and Coventry City Football Club and features two restaurants and a casino. The famous Godiva Festival takes place annually and is the UK’s biggest free festival. Nearby destinations might include Shakespearean Stratford, the King Richard III exhibition in Leicester, Warwick Castle, the working Charlecote watermill, the vibrant city of Birmingham, the shopping boutiques in Royal Leamington Spa and many more.