Dear colleague,

The Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting MP described our work as ‘nationally leading’ when visiting King George Hospital last week.

He visited our Elective Surgical Hub along with Jas Athwal, the Leader of Redbridge Borough Council, who also said it was ‘truly inspiring’.

Colleagues showcased the innovative ways we’re improving care for local residents, including the first pilot in the country that we’re running to use clinical photography to diagnose oral cancer quicker, which has seen some impressive results.

Our teams across both sites are doing some incredible work which is having a real impact on the care our patients receive. I’m glad our teams are getting the recognition they deserve.

Their visit recognised the improvements we’ve made in surgery. We’re also continuing our progress on emergency performance across both of our sites, with our best January performance in more than five years and NHS England moved our integrated healthcare system in north east London out of tier 1.

In January 2024, 50.6 per cent of patients who are most seriously ill (Type 1) were treated within four hours, compared to 32.2 per cent in January 2023.

This has been helped by our Frailty Virtual Ward (also known as hospital at home) that is not only keeping older people out of hospital and reducing risk of loss of independence, it’s also reducing pressure in our hospitals and helping other patients in need of urgent and emergency care get treated faster.

National Apprenticeship Week

For some, it was a week ‘they’ll never forget’ with 30 of our graduates getting invited to the House of Commons to celebrate their achievements – thanks to our local MP Margaret Hodge for making it possible.

Baba, who is a Radiographer, is just one of our many apprentices who has an inspiring story to tell starting at our Trust 12 years ago as a porter and growing through our programme. I encourage you to watch him speak from the event.

At our Trust, we have over 400 apprentices, ranging from 17 to 61 years of age, across 39 different courses. It means that 5% of our workforce are apprentices and we have now joined the prestigious 5% Club.

It really highlights our commitment to our staff and local communities to make our Trust a great place to work.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive