About us
We provide community-based healthcare services to more than 1.2 million people living in Hertfordshire, West Essex, East of England and beyond.
About us
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCT) is an integral part of the health and care system in Hertfordshire, West Essex and parts of East of England. We are one of the principal providers of community-based healthcare services to more than 1.2 million people living in Hertfordshire and beyond. Some of our services also extend into the neighbouring areas of Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes.
HCT is rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission.
We support people at every stage of their lives, from health visiting, school nursing and specialist dental or speech services to community nursing rehabilitation and palliative care.
Key facts about what we do
Every day approximately 2,600 staff deliver a wide range of high quality health services to people across Hertfordshire, East Anglia, Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes in people's homes, in local clinics, in schools and in our community hospitals.
Some key facts about HCT
- We are rated as 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- 1.1m appointments and visits are carried out by us
- 93% of patients recommend us — we receive 7 compliments for every complaint
- 404,519 is the average number of contacts we provide a year through our Integrated Community Teams covering 7 localities
- Over 55 CQC registered services
- £157.4m — our income for 2023/24
- 72% of our staff recommend HCT as a place to work
- 75% of our staff feel safe to speak up about concerns
- 80% of our staff work flexibly, in a mobile way, utilising technology
Vision and values
Our vision
Patients, their families, and carers are at the heart of what we do. Our vision is all about providing outstanding services and improving the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve.
Our values
These three values underpin the work we do each day:
- Innovative - we seek new ideas and adopt best practice to improve our services
- Caring - we show kindness and consideration for each other
- Agile - we deal with new situations quickly and successfully
Strategic objectives
We have four strategic objectives:
Outstanding quality and performance
We will strive to achieve an Outstanding rating by the Care Quality Commission through driving our approach to continuous quality improvement (CQI) across the organisation and by supporting staff to provide the best possible care to patients. We will also ensure we meet all of our contractual obligations for our commissioners.
Joined-up local care
We will strive to jointly lead the emerging Integrated Care Partnership for east and north Hertfordshire. This means working closely with partners, such as GPs in primary care networks, to improve community services in the area, collaborate with partners to redesign services and integrate clinical pathways for the benefit of our patients.
Great place to work
We will strive to make HCT a great place to work by having:
- An innovative, caring and agile set of values
- Through having a strong employee offer to our staff
- Through a commitment to ongoing professional development
- By ensuring we have inclusive, supportive and pleasant working environments
Best value through innovation
One of our top priorities is to ensure the best possible value for the public purse. This means ensuring:
- Our corporate teams are as efficient as possible
- That we harness modern processes, systems and technologies to enable our staff to their best
- That we invest in innovation to drive our ambition to be an outstanding provider of services
Our services for adults
Adult community services
In East and North Hertfordshire, our Locality Integrated Care Teams (ICTs) deliver nursing and therapy services in Lower Lea Valley, North Hertfordshire, Stevenage, Stort Valley & Villages, Upper Lea Valley and Welwyn Hatfield.
Adult specialist services
Specialist services we provide include acute therapies, bladder and bowel services, cardiology, cardiac rehabilitation, heart failure, diabetes, diabetic retinal screening, lymphoedema, nutrition and dietetics, MSK, podiatry, respiratory, pulmonary rehabilitation, skin health, speech and language therapy, tissue viability, leg ulcer and neurological rehabilitation.
Community hospitals
Our community hospitals are: Oxford and Cambridge wards at the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop's Stortford, and Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Welwyn.
We also run the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) at the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop's Stortford.
Our services for children
Children's universal services
We provide a range of services for children and young people including health visiting and school nursing, child health information, looked after children and safeguarding children.
Children's specialist services
These services include audiology, children's community nursing, paediatrics, children's continuing care, dental and optical services and specialist school nursing, Step2 (early intervention child and adolescent mental health service for children and young people aged 0-19) and PALMS (Positive behaviour, Autism, Learning disability and Mental health Service).
Children's therapies
We provide occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy for children.
