Hello all,

In August we responded to another heatwave, published our new five-year Patient Experience Strategy and opened our new Cardiology Same Day Emergency Care Unit at East Surrey Hospital. We also gained regional coverage on BBC South East on our plans to improve care for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, delivered our first in-house Newborn Life Support course, and welcomed our new Executive Director of Estates and Facilities.

Looking ahead to September, we will be finalising our winter plans, launching our annual Flu Campaign, and a new infection control campaign for 2026 – to help support our staff, patients and visitors to stay well this winter and help us reduce the spread of winter viruses.

Our services

Patient Experience Strategy

In August we published our new five-year Patient Experience Strategy, which sets a clear ambition: to ensure every patient receives compassionate, safe and person-centred care, with clear communication and meaningful involvement in decisions about their treatment. Its core message is simple: patient experience is everyone's responsibility. Every interaction, whether in a clinical, administrative, support, facilities, corporate or volunteer role, shapes how people experience our services. Over the next year we will focus on key improvement programmes including emergency care, maternity, outpatient services, virtual care and accessibility, while using patient feedback to drive meaningful change. You can find out more about our new Patient Experience Strategy on our website.

New Cardiology Same Day Emergency Care Unit

As part of our expansion of Same Day Emergency Care provision, I am pleased to say that our new Cardiology Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) Unit at East Surrey Hospital is now fully up and running - operating between 8am and 8pm, five days a week. The service, which is dedicated to caring for emergency patients from the Emergency Department (ED) with cardiology-related conditions, is being run over the coming months to explore how we can increase rapid diagnostic testing by specialty doctors, reduce the number of patients waiting in ED and the number we need to admit, and help more patients go home the same day. In its first two weeks the unit has already delivered some really positive patient results – with a number of patients who would have needed to be admitted under the previous pathway, now either avoiding admission completely or reducing their length of stay by 80%. So, a fantastic start to our latest initiative to improve patient care and flow through our same day emergency services, and I look forward to keeping you updated as this progresses.

Our partners

Care Without Carbon shortlisted in HSJ Awards

I am delighted that our Care Without Carbon (CWC) programme has been recognised in the ‘Toward Net Zero’ category in this years’ HSJ awards. We have long partnered with the CWC team, who support a number of trusts, to develop and deliver our Green Plan. As set out in our recently refreshed Green Plan, in recent years the programme has supported us to make steady progress towards our Net Zero Carbon goals, and measuring from a baseline of emissions in 2019/20, we have already reduced our usage by 15%. With lots more innovations in the works, we are on track to continue bringing down the carbon pollution from our care, and this HSJ award entry highlights the value of working across the system towards our shared greener care goals.

Trust news

Trust delivers first in-house Newborn Life Support course

In August we successfully delivered our first Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) Newborn Life Support (NLS) course at East Surrey Hospital on 23 July 2026. The nationally recognised course provides healthcare professionals with the knowledge and practical skills to assess, stabilise and resuscitate newborn babies who need additional support at birth. Training our Midwifery, Obstetric, Neonatal and Paediatric teams to this nationally recognised standard strengthens our ability to deliver safe, high-quality care and helps improve outcomes for babies and their families. Bringing the course in-house also means colleagues can now access this essential training closer to where they work, making it easier to maintain their skills whilst reducing the need for external training and delivering cost savings for the Trust. So a really important investment in our people, our services and the quality of care we provide every day.

Executive leadership update

In August, we welcomed Stephen Wells, our new Executive Director of Estates and Facilities. Stephen, who was previously Director of Estates and Facilities at the University of East Anglia, has worked in the estates and facilities industry for more than 30 years - spending over 16 years of these within the Higher Education sector where he has held similar senior estates positions at London South Bank University, Queen Mary University of London, University College London, and the University of Surrey. In his early career, Stephen also spent a number of years in estates and facilities roles for the NHS across the South East and South London and brings with him a strong background in construction delivery and facilities management. I look forward to working with him in the months to come. Stephen’s appointment as an Executive Director recognises the significant challenges and opportunities of our estate, at East Surrey Hospital but also the space we rent at Crawley and Horsham Hospitals.

Best wishes

Andrew Hines

Chief Executive Officer