2025 Annual Public Meeting minutes

Welcome

The Trust’s Chairman, Charles Alexander, opened the 2025 Annual Public Meeting and welcomed around 130 attendees both in person and online. He introduced Chief Executive, Professor Ian Abbs, Deputy Lead Governor, Alison Mould, and colleagues representing a range of services across the organisation.

The Chairman reflected on the Trust’s achievements and challenges over the past year and thanked the Trust’s 23,700 staff for their dedication and commitment. He also expressed appreciation for the contribution of the Trust’s Board of Directors and Council of Governors, and acknowledged the extensive support provided by the Trust’s charities, partners and local MPs.

The Chairman noted that this was Professor Abbs’s final Annual Public Meeting as Chief Executive and welcomed the appointment of Amanda Pritchard as the incoming Chief Executive.
 

Review of the last year and our future plans

Professor Ian Abbs provided an overview of the Trust’s performance during 2024/25, noting that the year comprised 2 distinct halves.

He noted that staff across the Trust have worked tirelessly to provide safe, compassionate, and high-quality care through more than 3 million patient contacts this year.

Despite good progress in the first few months, in early June the Trust was severely affected by a major cyber-attack on Synnovis, their pathology provider as well as periods of industrial action.

He described the extensive recovery effort carried out jointly with Synnovis colleagues and partners across south east London, with electronic blood cross‑matching and full pathology capability restored by October.

Operational performance

Despite these challenges, over 2024/25 the Trust had:

• reduced waiting lists by 20,000 patients and eliminated 65‑week waits for almost all patients
• halved diagnostic waiting times from their peak following the implementation of Epic
• achieved sustained improvement against the Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer – in March 80% of cancer patients received their diagnosis within 28 days, exceeding the national standard
• improved the proportion of cancer patients starting treatment within 62 days by 8%, though he acknowledged that the Trust remains under NHS England’s regulatory tiering programme and we have more to do to ensure timely care
• maintained strong performance in the Emergency Department at St Thomas’, with 79% of patients seen within 4 hours in March, above the national standard

He highlighted the continuing collaboration with partners across London, the expansion of the @Home service, and major developments in digital care, including the ongoing enhancement of Epic and the MyChart patient portal.

Financial performance

The Trust ended the year with a £12.7 million surplus against an agreed breakeven plan. It delivered £72 million in savings against a target of £94 million. Professor Abbs emphasised the importance of maintaining financial discipline in the challenging environment facing the NHS.

Valuing our people

The latest NHS Staff Survey showed the Trust scored above the national average in every domain, with 91% of staff saying they were proud to work here. Key areas for improvement include experiences of disabled colleagues and staff from global majority backgrounds, particularly concerning career progression and bullying and harassment.

The Trust’s equality, diversity and inclusion work remains a central priority.

Looking ahead

Professor Abbs outlined alignment between the government’s new 10‑year plan for the NHS and the Trust’s 2030 strategy – Better, faster, fairer healthcare for all. He highlighted continuing progress in research, genomics, AI, robotics, and major capital developments, including:

• approval for a new surgical centre with 6 operating theatres at Guy’s Hospital
• continued progress on the Evelina London expansion, including the transfer of children’s cancer services and the consolidation of cardiac, respiratory and critical care services for children

The Chief Executive closed by introducing a short film showcasing the work of the Trust’s Essentia colleagues.

Presentations

A series of presentations were provided to showcase innovation and how our services continue to improve the care provided to patients.

• Dental care virtual clinics, Dr Poonam Kalsi demonstrated how virtual clinics are reducing waiting times and improving patient access.
• Life in the Emergency Department, Dr Katherine Henderson provided insight into the pressures and priorities of one of London’s busiest emergency departments.
• Kofoworola Abeni Pratt Fellowship, Kendra Schneller and Simone Hesson shared their reflections on leadership development and supporting future leaders from global majority backgrounds.
• Advances in cystic fibrosis care, Dr Imogen Felton highlighted groundbreaking developments in treatment and the impact on patient outcomes.

Council of Governors' report

Alison Mould, Deputy Lead Governor, presented the annual Council of Governors’ report. She acknowledged that the NHS is not 'broken', but it is not perfect.

She summarised the role of the Council of Governors and outlined 4 areas of focus where it believed change was possible including:

• reducing the number of patients who do not attend appointments
• providing better access for patients to clinicians through the MyChart patient portal
• challenging the Trust to help patients use hospital spaces better, for example through better signage
• ensuring that provision is made for all staff to have safe and comfortable places to leave their valuables

She outlined that a large part of the governors’ role is to ensure that non-executive directors offer sufficient challenge to the board of directors and that the Nominations Committee of the Board of Governors helped to appoint 2 new non-executive directors this year.

She finished by thanking Professor Abbs on behalf of the governors for the dedication and care with which he undertook his role.

Question and answers session

The Board responded to questions submitted in advance and those raised during the meeting, both in person and online. Topics included:

• how the Trust is progressing towards its net zero goals
• the effectiveness of communication and co-ordination between hospital departments and GP practices
• failure to respond to a complaint in a timely manner
• concerns over the nationally procured federated data platform
• difficulties of progressing job applications for people without experience in the UK
• how technology can help bridge the gap between families navigating complex care
• maximising the benefits of MyChart
• the impact of artificial intelligence on patient care
• supporting people who may be digitally excluded

Close

The Chairman thanked all presenters and attendees for their contributions. He paid tribute to Professor Ian Abbs on his final Annual Public Meeting as Chief Executive, recognising his 5-decade career, outstanding service to the Trust and the NHS, and his leadership through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID‑19 pandemic.