Dear colleague,

Our staff celebration and thank you events continued in great style this week.

We recognised colleagues who have been working here for 10, 15, 20 and 40 years. Together, 230 colleagues have a combined, remarkable, 3,855 years’ service.

Juliette, our longest serving midwife, sums up why we hold these events: ‘‘The reason why I’ve been here for 40 years is because I love what I do.

‘‘Being recognised is an experience I’ll always remember and it was lovely to have my family with me. It’s been a wonderful experience.’’

We also held a graduation event for 220 of our staff, alongside our staff awards and a volunteers lunch.

Emma Beard, an A&E matron, said: ‘‘What this Trust does for staff is amazing. This is a great place to work, you get such support.’’

You can read about our events and watch some of the highlights on our website.

Working together to reduce waiting times

Thousands of patients across north east London could get NHS treatment sooner this year as our hospitals collaborate to schedule extra elective operations.

About 7,000 people facing long waits for planned procedures will be offered the choice of appointments with a shorter waiting time.

The plan maximises collective clinical capacity in specialities like oral surgery, ear nose and throat procedures, urology, ophthalmology and neurology.

It means that patients needing planned treatment could be offered a slot at any one of eight acute hospitals based on clinical priority and waiting times.

The arrangement between our Trust and the Barts Health group and Homerton Healthcare, will help each trust meet the national ambition to have no-one waiting more than 65 weeks for planned care by the end of September.

Good luck and thank you, Jacqui

I wish Jacqui Smith all the best in her new role as this week, she stepped down as joint chair of our Trust and Barts Health.

Jacqui will be returning to government, this time as an Education Minister. She will also become a member of the House of the Lords.

She’s has been our Chair for three years. During that time she has led us through our exit from 'special measures' and has overseen our closer collaboration with Barts and the work we’re doing with them and Homerton Healthcare as part of an acute provider collaborative.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with her. I’m looking forward now to working more closely with Mehboob Khan, who was our Vice Chair and will now be the Acting Chair of our Trust. His counterpart, Adam Sharples, will perform the same role at Barts Health.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive