Showcasing Innovation and Impact: A visit from Wes Streeting

27 May 2025

Earlier this month our CEO Steve McManus had the privilege of hosting Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for a visit to our Trust.

We were incredibly proud to showcase the breadth and depth of the work taking place across the Trust, and to take part in a valuable round table discussion with the Secretary of State and CEOs from other Trusts around reforming delivery, driving productivity, and sharing best practices.

During the visit Sunil Kumar, Consultant Urological Surgeon, showed Wes around our new Elective Recovery Modular Build in South Block, which is set to open to patients next month. Once operational, it will significantly boost our capacity, allowing for an extra 538 appointments for new patients and an additional 3,666 follow-up procedures each year. Sunil and the team set out the importance of how the design of the new building really supports the efficiency and effectiveness of how the clinical and administrative teams will be able to work.

Alongside Urology, which will be the main service based there, we’re also planning to include Stoma and Gynaecology clinics in the new space.

The next stop on the visit was to hear from Professor Mark Little about our work on the Genesis Study in Interventional Radiology which is exploring a groundbreaking procedure for knee osteoarthritis. Using tiny beads inserted into the knee’s blood vessels, we can block pain-signalling nerves, potentially reducing the need for knee replacement surgeries. With the largest European dataset and a two-year follow-up, Genesis could redefine how we manage this type of chronic pain. The Health Secretary met with a patient who had been through the procedure with Mark several years ago and remains pain free with his mobility and quality of life massively improved.

Another area where we’re accelerating diagnosis and improving care is through Point-of-Care ultrasound (POCUS). Ingrid Stracker, POCUS Clinical Specialist Lead explained that by equipping clinicians with portable ultrasound devices, we’re making diagnosis faster, reducing radiation exposure, and making the patient journey more efficient. Point-of-Care ultrasound is being expertly used by a number of our teams in hospital, in community settings and in patients’ own homes.