We’ve been shortlisted as ‘Trust of the Year’ in the HSJ awards, recognising how we’ve gone from a ‘troubled’ trust in special measures, to one of the best in London at reducing waiting lists, as well as in the top five trusts in the capital for our urgent and emergency care performance.

In recent years our staff have transformed patient care in numerous ways: we’ve run innovative projects to reduce our waiting lists, from ‘Bones Weeks’ for orthopaedic surgery, to slashing our target to treat 800 ophthalmology patients during PrEYEority week (we actually saw 1,153); developed new ways of working with our partners, including reducing patient handover times between our A&E teams and ambulance crews, which won a parliamentary award; and made maternity care safer, reducing the number of stillbirths and improving management of hypertension and diabetes in pregnancy.

We’ve also focused on a better staff experience, with initiatives like our Shadow Executive helping junior staff develop their careers, and our senior intern team supporting nurses wanting to leave the profession in their first year, helping our vacancy rates decrease from 16.9% to 9.9% and turnover rates from 14.9% to 10% since 2022.

And we’ve got a better grip on our finances, making £30m in savings two years in a row and we’re on track to reduce our agency spend to £7million in this financial year, compared to £47million two years ago.

Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive (above), said:

Being shortlisted for 'Trust of the Year' recognises the work our staff have put in to improve the care we provide. We have made a huge effort to get out of special measures, despite facing record demand for our services, and this is down to lots of hard work across our hospitals.

We know we have more to do, particularly to try to end corridor care at Queen's hospital, and to make sure fewer people have a poor experience while under our care - all this while we're trying to cut spending by £61m. But this nomination is a great boost for all of us and a sign we are moving in the right direction.

We’ve also been shortlisted in the Performance Recovery Award category for our project to provide specialist palliative care in A&E.

A member of our Palliative Care team is based in A&E at both of our hospitals, where they can identify patients nearing the end of their lives earlier and provide specialist support while having honest conversations with them and their families.

Josh Singleton, a palliative paramedic specialist, said:

It’s an honour to be shortlisted. We’re one of very few trusts to offer a service like this and for some patients, it can mean being able to die at home as they wish rather than in a busy A&E. For others it could be small changes to improve their symptoms.

In the 18 months since we’ve been up and running, we’ve made significant improvements to palliative care in A&E, ensuring patients who are at the end of their lives in an emergency department receive compassionate care. We’ve also helped reduce length of stay in hospital for palliative patients.

Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony in London this November.