Dear colleague,

This week we welcomed Julia Lopez, MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, to Queen’s to see the progress that we’ve made since her last visit to A&E and our Urgent Treatment Centre run by PELC.

Julia heard from colleagues about the initiatives that are helping reduce the waits our patients are facing including our new Infusion Suite which opened this week.

This facility will be a game changer for patients who receive infusion therapy at Queen’s as it will avoid them being admitted into hospital so they can go home on the same day.

She also got to see our new Discharge Lounge which has helped us free up more beds on the wards with patients being moved here while they wait to leave hospital.

A rewarding week

I appreciate that Christmas is never the best time to be in hospital but for some of our younger patients, they enjoyed getting in the festive spirit with a panto on one of our wards run by the Starlight Charity.

For our patients and their families, it gave them the boost they needed as summed up by four-year-old Luna who said “I really enjoyed it. My favourite part was when they sung songs from the Trolls film. It was lots of fun.”

Sahara A also celebrated their silver ward accreditation – the sixteenth ward to do so.

Ward accreditation is part of our ongoing efforts to improve and standardise the quality of care given to patients at our hospitals and sees wards assessed by corporate nurses and subject matter experts.

It was also great to see our Elective Surgical Hub get recognised at the HSJ Awards.

The hub, based at King George Hospital, has been instrumental in our ongoing work to reduce our waiting lists and treating our patients quicker.

I look forward to the expansion of the hub being completed in spring 2024.

Thanking our Healthcare Assistants

Lastly, I’d like to thank all of our brilliant Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) as they celebrated Healthcare Support Workers’ Day.

We have more than 900 HCAs at our Trust who all play a vital role in the care our patients receive. Find out more in our latest video.

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive