The report outlines the work that we have undertaken during the last financial year and the progress we have made against our priorities.
 
We have continued to implement our Better Health, Better Lives strategy, which has helped us to build a solid foundation and take forward our vision of making Rotherham a healthier place to live and that wherever possible we diagnose and prevent risks to health before they become serious.
 
There has been a continued improvement in health in Rotherham. The number of people quitting smoking has continued to increase – which contributes significantly to improvements in life expectancy, which show that people in Rotherham are living an average of two years longer than they did ten years ago and the number of people dying prematurely from heart disease and stroke has halved since 1990.
 
During 2010/11 we undertook a great deal of work to prepare for the national programme to transform community health services. As of 1st April 2011 all Rotherham Community Health Services and the 1,300 staff employed by them were transferred to other health provider organisations, including The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust and the Rotherham Hospice.
 
The last year has been extremely challenging for everyone at NHS Rotherham, and indeed in the NHS as a whole, as the economic climate and future plans for the NHS have led to much uncertainty and public debate.
 
Over the last 12 months NHS Rotherham has had to make a considerable reduction in both our management and running costs in order to save £72million by 2014. In doing this we have restructured the organisation, offered a voluntary redundancy and voluntary early retirement scheme to staff and we are currently addressing our non-staff costs to save money in areas such as printing and paper, travel, stationery and mobile phones.
 
Chris Edwards, Chief Operating Officer at NHS Rotherham, said: “Against this backdrop of considerable change and the challenges we faced, we have continued to improve and develop our services to ensure that all our priorities continue to be met. Patients in Rotherham continue to receive some of the very best health care and services in the country. This is testament to our dedicated and hard working staff and we would like to thank all of them for the way in which they have handled the unprecedented changes that have taken place, and will continue to take place, over the next couple of years.”
 
Download the report at: http://www.rotherham.nhs.uk/files/Organisational/Annual%20reports/NHS%20Rotherham%20Annual%20Report%202010-2011.pdf