Next week we’re starting our construction work at King George Hospital to expand our Surgical Hub with a £14m upgrade, which will see us complete, on average, at least 16 additional operations per day.

Our Enhanced Supportive Care (ESC) team has won a Macmillan Professionals Excellence award in the Whatever it Takes category, which recognises teams and individuals going to extraordinary lengths for cancer patients.

We held a Gynaecology ‘Perfect’ Week from Monday 7 November, treating 81 women. It would usually take our teams around a month to carry out this number of operations. These focused efforts, where we concentrate our resources to carry out well above the usual number of procedures in a week, are one way we’re reducing our waiting lists.

A passion for more environmentally friendly burials has seen Gemma Norburn from our Mortuary team win anatomical pathology technologist (APT) of the year at the Good Funeral awards.

We’ve secured government funding to expand our Surgical Hub at King George Hospital, which will include two new theatres, upgraded staff facilities, improved storage, and double the number of recovery beds.

Our Chair Jacqui Smith joined our Charity team on Monday 7 November to showcase the benefits of RITA devices (Reminiscence Interactive Therapy Activity) and new patient activity trollies on our elderly care wards.

After the success of two marketplaces we held over the summer, offering free school uniforms and office wear to our staff, we’re holding two more before Christmas.

A series of information videos, in Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu languages have been produced to support our communities get the support you need to recover from Long Covid.

This week we welcomed the mayors of all three of our boroughs, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, and Redbridge to Queen’s Hospital to see the positive impact Macmillan’s support has had on our hospitals, and the benefits for our cancer patients.

Find out about matron, Clementina Martin's journey in the Black History Month edition of the CareerMap Vibes.