On Friday 8 November, Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, and Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, visited our stroke wards and interventional neuroradiology (a service which treats patients for neurological conditions including stroke).

The CCS Congress at Queen’s Hospital saw around 50 departments, including Pharmacy Production, Infection Control, Chaplaincy and Radiotherapy, show how they work with different wards and departments across our Trust.

November is Mouth Cancer Action Month and we’re the first in the country to start an innovative new project to speed up diagnosis of this form of the disease - using clinical photography.

We’ve held an official opening for our new combined SPECT (single-proton emission computed tomography)-CT scanner, which will help us provide more accurate diagnoses for our patients.

One of our consultants Professor Gideon Mlawa was invited to a special reception at St Jame’s Palace to honour the role international healthcare workers have in the NHS and across the world.

Our latest NHS Workforce Race and Disability Equality Standard data shows our hospitals are becoming more inclusive places to work.

Congratulations to the Frailty Unit at Queen’s Hospital, which achieved bronze in our ward accreditation scheme.

We’re part of the North East London Cancer Alliance, which is leading an initiative to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into speeding up cancer diagnosis. This project aims to reduce wait times for chest x-ray results from three weeks to just three days for scans with significant findings.

Congratulations to Ash Ward at King George Hospital, which has been awarded silver in our ward accreditation programme.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s more important than ever that we use events like this to increase understanding of this disease as since the awareness month began in the 90s, there’s been an 18% increase in the number of people diagnosed.