On arrival at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup, I was met by chair professor Andrew George and chief executive Dr Ify Okocha for a hospital tour.
Part of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Mary's has a fascinating and significant history as the home of facial surgery world pioneer Sir Harold Delf Gillies. Gillies pioneered new techniques in plastic and reconstructive surgery for soldiers returning from the battlefields of World War I, with a focus on the psychological and physical trauma of 'broken faces'. This legacy is sensitively honoured in the hospital with a beautiful memorial and internal courtyard near the main hospital entrance.
Oxleas offers a wide range of healthcare services to people living in south east London and to people in prison across the south east and south west of England.
Its community healthcare provision includes district nursing and speech and language therapy care for people with learning disabilities. It also provides mental health care such as psychiatric nursing and therapies. As well as Queen Mary's, Oxleas staff work from a total of around 125 healthcare sites across the trust.
Queen Mary's partners with trusts across the southeast including Kings, Guys and St Thomas's, Dartford and Gravesham, Lewisham and Greenwich, who all provide a range of key services including cancer, ophthalmology, theatres and an urgent care centre.
I was impressed by how Queen Mary's general manager Holly had negotiated and implemented a range of effective partnerships with NHS England and independent sector providers who use the hospital.
Holly took me around the site and highlighted how it had developed to serve the needs of the local community, bringing primary, acute, specialist and mental health care into one site.
Following this excellent insight, I spent time with the board and senior leaders, presenting on the government's agenda for the NHS and had a really good discussion about the financial and performance challenges facing the NHS. We also discussed the need to embed NHS impact and an improvement approach across the service.
I found the 'can do' spirit and desire to share the positive work the trust does with other parts of the NHS really encouraging. Oxleas demonstrates the importance and success of positive partnership working, along with a deep understanding of how to integrate physical and mental health in service delivery and community engagement.
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