Purple Book Success at Queen Alexandra Hospital

The Queen Alexandra Hospital (Portsmouth) Purple Book initiative was recently awarded the Public Sector Award at the IJGlobal 2023 ESG Awards 2023

The Purple Book, an initiative between Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust, The Hospital Company (InfraRed Capital Partners), Pario and Equans FM, was recently awarded the Public Sector Award at the IJGlobal 2023 ESG Awards.

The Purple Book is a guide to facilities management and patient services, that was developed to help medical and FM staff within the hospital understand all the services available to support both them and their patients. One judge described this as “needed, impactful and scalable”.

The book was initially conceived as a response to observations raised by a 12-year-old receiving palliative care in the children’s ward. The patient identified improvements to impact positively other young patients and their families’ experiences when receiving care.

The team collaborated to produce a guide for Trust staff to publicise the services offered by the hospital’s FM provider, including the provision of meals for chaperones when accompanying patients during their hospital stay. The Purple Book was able to bring together key information on these services to better support both staff and patients.

Praise came thick and fast with one judge saying the Purple Book was an “excellent, valuable initiative” that “demonstrates genuine empathy and innovation”.

One judge said: “This is a fantastic example of an individual driving positive changes that are truly scalable and will have a positive outcome for a large number of patients and their families.”

Another adds it is an “excellent and compelling example of public sector proactivity to improve standards of care” and one more saying it was a “great example of taking the initiative and having real positive impact through something very practical and simple”.

One further judge said: “The Purple Book project is a fantastic example of the importance and value of governance in driving impactful ESG. The innovative use of ESG funding to deliver a simple, but effective, governance tool to public health sector workers is a showcase for implementing ESG in practice and in collaborative problem-solving.”

Equans commented: “The Purple Book enables ward staff the ability to inform both the public and patients with clear and precise information regarding the services Equans provide at QAH.

“This ensures services are accessible to everyone, removing historic myths and assumptions around what is and what’s not provided and a much-improved end-user experience.”