Dear colleague,

It’s great to read the comments made by Paul who has benefited from our theatre teams carrying out a month’s worth of gall bladder removal surgeries in just two days.

Paul was one of the 25 patients who had their operation over two Saturdays in July which helped us tackle our backlog but also improve the outcomes of those on the waiting list.

For these patients, longer waits can lead to further complications and the risk of having to go to A&E.

This is one of the many benefits of our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital as our teams can carry out these high-volume theatre lists without impacting other patients who need surgery.

Paul, who had been waiting a while for his operation, spoke of how staff had gone “above and beyond”.

Well done to everyone who was involved – it was a huge team effort with colleagues from our booking teams, outpatients, ward and theatre staff.

Radiology among the best

Our Radiology team’s impressive work is also worth celebrating  as they’ve gone from one of the worst performers in the country to one of the best.

Over the past few years they have had some significant achievements, including reducing a backlog of 11,000 scans - in January last year - to zero.

We’re now reporting 100% of CT scans within 28 days and results are available within 48 hours for patients with suspected cancer.

Our residents  will also benefit from having further diagnostic capacity following the opening of our Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Barking and our new CDC at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub in Hornchurch which is opening next month.

The renal service at Queen’s Hospital is moving to the hub and this will free up much needed space in our A&E. Margaret Mullane, our new MP for Dagenham and Rainham, visited the department last week and gave her backing to our plans for a new and improved department that will help us make corridor care a thing of the past.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive