We held a special opening event on Friday 17 May to celebrate the completion of an expansion of our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital (KGH).

As part of our commitment to support our lowest paid workers with the rising cost of living, particularly in and around London, we’re increasing our band 2 bank pay rates to the London Living Wage (LLW), as well as uplifting our apprentice rates. Payments for our staff will be backdated to April 2024.

Our annual plan for 2024/25 has been published, which sets out the work we’re doing towards improving patient care and staff experience via our six annual goals. You can read our annual plan, or annual plan summary, on our website.

In the week of International Nurses Day (Sunday 12 May) we celebrated our nurses by delivering fruit baskets to our wards, while teams held their own celebrations. At our Trust we have more than 4,000 nurses, nursing associates and healthcare assistants from 111 different countries.

Romford MP Andrew Rosindell has pledged his support for a new and improved A&E at Queen’s Hospital after a visit to the site earlier today.

Sinead Skelton, a senior nurse, and radiographer Oluwole Adeyiga, known as Baba, were invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party this week – an experience they’ll remember forever.

Dying Matters Awareness Week (6 to 12 May) focuses on ‘how we talk about dying matters’. This year’s national week comes as we’re a few months into a new project between our Palliative Care and A&E teams to improve care for palliative patients.

In the week of International Day of the Midwife (5 May) our Trust joined other healthcare organisations in highlighting the vital role of midwives. We employ 494 midwives and maternity care support workers who come from 54 different countries of origin.

Louise Hulbert, who had a stroke 10 years ago and now volunteers as a patient partner at our Trust, has raised £900 for our charity by completing a 5k walk in San Sebastian, Spain.