Dear colleague,

I was delighted to welcome Sir David Sloman, Chief Operating Officer at NHS England (NHSE) to our BHRUT Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital (KGH) last week.

Sir David cut the ribbon on our latest robot - we’re the first in the country to offer a robotic colonoscopy service for patients and the procedure is less painful and less invasive than a traditional colonoscopy.

He was also shown our new state-of-the-art extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) machine which breaks down stones non-invasively. We can now see up to see five times more patients a week, reduce the need for invasive procedures, and treat both emergency and planned patients. 

I’m proud of what our staff have achieved and pleased their hard work has been recognised.

The hub focuses on high volume low complexity surgeries such as cataracts and hip replacements, and is one of eight in the country selected to take part in a national NHSE accreditation scheme; we’re looking forward to our first accreditation visit this week.

Closer working across north east London 

It’s great to see patients such as 73-year-old Krystyna Solomianko benefitting from our collaboration with Barts Health, which is going from strength to strength. Krystyna was treated more quickly when surgeons from our Trust joined forces with colleagues at the Royal London in a surgical first - Rej Bhumbra, trauma and orthopaedic consultant network director, explains more.

Another early success has been the extension of the Bart’s Remote Emergency Access Coordination Hub (REACH) – which aims to reduce unnecessary hospital visits by giving paramedics direct access to expert advice from emergency clinicians – to BHRUT. Patients get the most suitable treatment options as quickly as possible, which for many, avoids being brought to hospital and waiting in a busy A&E department.

Find out more about the success of REACH, and how Barts and ourselves are also now working more closely with Homerton Healthcare to improve the care we provide residents across north east London, in our latest update.

Menopause policy launches 

Our Chair Jacqui Smith launched our Trust menopause policy on Wednesday 1 February. The symptoms can be debilitating and can affect some women for years so this marks a big step forward in the support we offer women in our organisation, who make up more than 70% of our workforce.

It follows NHSE signing up to the Menopause Workplace Pledge and NHSE Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard being interviewed in The Daily Telegraph for the launch of the new NHS national guidance. I’m pleased we’ve strengthened the support available for our staff – and importantly that we’re breaking the taboos around talking about menopause.

New site structure

Wednesday also saw our new site structure come into effect, to help us better manage the challenges we’re facing with the flow of patients from A&E to a ward, and through to leaving hospital; and have better oversight and ability to improve performance and quality. KGH leadership will be further strengthened when Louise Dark, currently programme director for elective recovery at NHS London, joins us in March.

Best wishes,

Matthew Trainer
Chief Executive