With the end of the year approaching, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made in 2024.

It was an incredibly busy year for our A&Es with 332,056 people attending for treatment. Five of our six busiest months have been this year.

As we strived to tackle our waiting lists, we carried out 825,198 outpatient appointments and undertook 260,098 blood tests, 89,686 CT scans and 54,509 MRI scans. Our capacity has been enhanced by the opening of our state-of-the-art Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at Barking Community Hospital which will deliver an extra 50,000 scans every year, and the recently opened CDC at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub which will carry out 38,000 additional scans and tests a year.

Waiting lists will be further reduced thanks to the opening of our Women’s Health Hub in Ilford in November. The waiting list for women’s health related care is our biggest and many are waiting too long to get the care they need.

Our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital performed 9,312 surgeries. Thanks to a £14m extension we are able to provide 100 additional operations every week for patients across north east London. At the official opening in May, Wes Streeting, Health Secretary and MP for Ilford North, described what was going on at our Trust as “genuinely nationally leading”.

And we’ve welcomed 7,015 babies into the world this year at Queen’s Hospital.

None of this could have been achieved without the hard work of our staff and our volunteers, who we were able to thank with a series of events in July and August including a family fun day and a special lunch.

As we move into 2025, one of the most significant things we will be doing is introducing an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) that will be transformative for our staff and hugely beneficial for our patients.

We will also build on this year’s successes and continue to deliver care we’re proud of and our patients are happy with.