We were delighted to welcome Chris Hopson, Chief Strategy Officer at NHS England to our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital. He also visited some of our specialist departments, taking a look at the work we’re doing to reduce our waiting lists.

Afterwards Chris shared his thoughts with his followers on Twitter, saying: “I had a great visit on Friday to the very impressive Elective Surgery Hub at King George Hospital in Ilford. I’ve shared sharing some of the things that most impressed or struck me, linking back to some important wider issues in the NHS.”

This included highlighting the benefits of keeping our urgent and planned care beds and resource separate, even under immense pressures, which has allowed us to continue treating patients on our waiting lists.

Chris also mentioned how focusing on high volume low complexity work as a hub means better efficiencies and building of expertise, and how incorporating a dedicated critical care unit has allowed us to undertake more complex work.

Here's what else he had to say.

“I liked the sense of friendly competition between specialties in the hub, and I loved the way learning from improvements in one specialty was being applied to others.

The surgical leadership team had given each specialty a clear objective, for example, to cut their waiting list or reduce the length of stay by set amount, and then let them work out how to deliver.

I was equally struck by the description of the approach as ‘clinically led, partnered by operational management and administration, and enabled by trust senior leadership’. Clinicians know what needs to be done, but it will only work if it's a complete team effort.

“The positive benefits of the hub model for workforce enabled a really effective use of both nursing and physician associates - for example, four advanced physician associates covering the entire hub provides high quality of continuous care, supporting consultants very effectively. The trainees also love the model as it gives them a very good training experience.

“This fed into my key overall impression: the elective hub model clearly works when implemented well including investment. Works for staff. Works for patients. Works for the taxpayer. Impressive!”

Read Chris’ whole thread on Twitter.