Dear colleague,

One way the NHS is tackling its operational and financial challenges is through partnership working. For BHRUT, this has in part been through our work with Barts Health.

We have reduced waiting times for tests, prevented unnecessary hospital admissions, and improved transport to and from hospital for those who need it. Barts Health is supporting us as we introduce an electronic patient record. BHRUT is treating around 600 patients who’ve been on their waiting lists and are now with us.

Alongside Barts Health, we’re one of two hospitals in the country to offer FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) in our A&E at Queen’s. FIT checks the level of blood present in a patient’s poo and can help detect colorectal cancers.

In recognition of the progress made so far, and the rapid development of provider collaboratives across London, NHS England has asked us to consider how we could work together to cover all acute providers in north east London.

This means primarily working through the framework offered by our integrated health system’s acute provider collaborative (APC), which includes Homerton Healthcare.

In order to deepen this three-way collaboration, we have decided to pause our planned governance changes and joint executive appointments and focus on the work the two trusts are doing with Homerton Healthcare.

Recognition for the improvements we’re making

In recent weeks senior colleagues from NHS England have visited so they could see first-hand the improvement in our urgent and emergency care performance.

We’ve moved from the bottom of the list in England to the top 25% of trusts. This meant that last month, nearly 5,000 more patients (of 28,000 in total) were treated within four hours in our A&Es and Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC) compared with the previous December. We’re on track to meet, by March, the recovery target of 76% of all patients attending A&E being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

We need to do a lot more. When our hospitals get very busy, too many people are still waiting too long. But it was good to hear Sarah-Jane Marsh, National Director of Urgent and Emergency Care and Caroline Clarke, the London Regional Director for the NHS, recognise the progress we have made, and praise our staff for the work they do and the energy and passion they have.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer