Dear colleague,

It was an exciting milestone reached last week with the delivery of our Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) to the site at Barking Community Hospital.

My thanks to all of those involved in ensuring it went as smoothly as possible – it’s no mean feat getting in 23 trucks in the windy and rainy conditions which halted the delivery with work continuing today.

It means we’re now one step closer to providing quicker, more convenient care for those who live in north east London.

The CDC, due to open in Spring 2024, will house scanning equipment such as MRI, CT, and ultrasound alongside consultation rooms for a range of other tests. You can find out more on our website.

NHS Regional Director visits staff

It was a pleasure to welcome Caroline Clarke, the Regional Director of the NHS in London, to Queen’s Hospital recently.

Caroline met teams across the hospital from A&E, the Discharge Lounge, Frailty Unit, Theatres and Sky B.

She heard about the great work the teams are doing to improve the care patients receive by cutting waiting lists in surgery. She also saw and heard about the pressures our teams are facing in emergency care and what we are doing to reduce that.

We look forward to welcoming Caroline to King George Hospital later this year.

Double win at the RLDatix Awards

It was great to attend the awards which recognise healthcare organisations that are using innovation to improve patient safety and quality of care.

Our Workforce team won the Sustainable Organisation award, in recognition of our Workforce Control Improvement Programme.

The programme aimed to reduce our temporary staffing expenditure, which made up 27 per cent of our total pay spend. It has seen our temporary pay bill fall to 16 per cent, reducing our overall temporary staffing costs by around £10m a year, while our permanent workforce has increased by 750.

Our Nursing Workforce Hub team were also presented with the Safer Care Award, recognising how we’ve used data ‘from board to ward’ in a meaningful way to make decisions about patient safety.

This has significantly improved the care our patients receive and both teams thoroughly deserve the awards – well done.

Have a brew with Matthew

Last week, I hosted the first in a series of monthly engagement session with staff at King George Hospital.

I was joined by colleagues from frailty, A&E and the Site Teams among others, who talked about some of the great work they are proud of.

The launch of these sessions coincided with Freedom to Speak Up Month and I’m really pleased that they were also able to share the issues they were facing.

Like the staff survey that launched this month, understanding people’s experiences and challenges means we can both address their issues and learn from where things are going well.

I wanted to end this newsletter by offering my condolences to all our staff and local residents who are affected by events in the Middle East.

Best wishes

Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive