On one of the few warm days of this summer, the Elizabeth Line whisked me to Woolwich, south-east London, to visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital, one of two hospital sites run by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT). LGT provides services to over one million people across the Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. As a combined acute and community provider, the trust's 7,600 staff deliver care at University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich), alongside some services at Queen Mary's Hospital (Sidcup) and at various community sites in Lewisham.
Lewisham is one of the most deprived areas nationally and I was struck by the work the trust does to tackle health inequalities experienced by its local community and to mitigate the impact waiting lists have on wider population health. Staff know that patients in deprived areas tend to wait longer for surgery; they're piloting proactive identification of waiting list patients at risk of health inequalities and cancellations due to ill health. To help achieve this, they're using several datasets to identify patients who've waited more than 78 weeks, using a range of prioritisation criteria.
The results are promising and suggest they are identifying the right patients. Many of these have co-morbidities. 52% have required support to ensure they're fit for surgery, most commonly for anaemia, frailty, diabetes and smoking cessation. A number of patients are now under active monitoring or removed from the waiting list entirely through shared decision-making with partners.
Of course, LGT's people are central to the delivery of this and other ambitious change initiatives taking place, including the delivery of a new diagnostic imaging centre and increased bed capacity at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as two new theatres for south-east London patients at Lewisham, and community diagnostic centres in Eltham and Sidcup. LGT also continues to work in partnership with staff to drive organisational cultural change, acknowledging the challenges it faced in the past. Ben Travis, chief executive, commissioned an independent review of the organisation's culture and an independent oversight panel after joining the trust in 2018. Chaired by Roger Kline and former Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, an open forum held the organisation to account on implementation of the findings. After 18 months, the panel was handed back to the trust, which still runs a related group.
It was great to meet so many of the LGT team during my visit to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including senior leadership and staff across maternity, diagnostics, urgent and emergency care and respiratory care. I enjoyed hearing about the innovative work they're proud of and to see the way they collaborate as a team. Underpinned by a set of new co-designed organisational values and a vision 'to be exceptional', I could see that 'Team LGT' is ambitious and future-focused in its plans to deliver for patients, staff and partners.
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