I hope this finds you well.

Expansion of our Ultrasound department at King George Hospital

We continue to invest in our hospitals and improve facilities to ensure our patients receive the best possible experience when they visit us.

As part of these improvement works, we are currently adding the finishing touches to an upgrade of our Ultrasound department at King George Hospital, which has seen the number of ultrasound rooms go from six to eight, with four of the existing rooms refreshed.

The upgrade will allow our sonographers to complete between 100 to 150 additional ultrasound scans each week, which will be crucial as we continue to try and reduce waiting times for our patients affected by the pandemic.

This isn’t the only boost for our Radiology department at King George Hospital. In recent weeks an additional CT scanner has been added, going from one to two. We’re also replacing our two MRI machines with better and faster state-of-the-art machines, the first of which has already been introduced.

While we improve and increase our diagnostic capacity at King George Hospital, we also continue to work with our partners across north east London to tackle diagnostic waiting lists.

Urology super clinic tackles appointment backlog

Investment alone will not reduce the backlog of appointments built up throughout the pandemic. I’ve explained previously how our fantastic teams are holding ‘super clinics’ to ensure our patients get the care they need as quickly as possible.

The latest of which was held by our Urology department, which held two super clinics on separate days. The clinics took place on the weekend; the first of which saw 72 patients and the second saw 120.

These new initiatives typically involve different teams and services across our Trust completing a large number of appointments and procedures over a short period of time – whether that be a dedicated day, weekend or week.

Well done to all involved.

Patient Partner Sara’s kind donation

Our volunteers and Patient Partners are a really important part of the team at our hospitals. We’re very lucky that so many people dedicate their time to help others.

Whether it’s working towards improving patient experience, helping our staff or picking up the phone during the pandemic to check on those isolating at home.

The dedication our volunteers show is fantastic and this was evident recently when Sara Turle, a Patient Partner, donated two light boxes to improve the waiting areas for our cancer patients. Sara started her cancer journey with us in 2010 and wanted to thank the “incredible” team who have helped her.

Speaking about the light boxes, Sara hopes “they bring comfort - in times of challenge - to patients; and strength to the staff who we remain indebted to for the care they have provided.”

We’re very grateful for Sara’s donation and we know the two light boxes will make a difference to our patients going through their own personal journeys with us. Thank you.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Best wishes,

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive