2026 Annual Public Meeting minutes

Welcome

The Trust’s Chairman, Charles Alexander, opened the 2026 Annual Public Meeting and welcomed around 150 attendees in person and online. He introduced Chief Executive, Dame Amanda Pritchard, Deputy Lead Governor, Alison Mould, and colleagues representing a range of services across the organisation.

The Chairman thanked the Trust’s 23,900 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 confirmed that he would be stepping down at the end of his term, noting what a privilege it had been to lead Guy’s and St Thomas’. He would remain in post until his successor was appointed.

Review of the last year and our future plans

Amanda Pritchard thanked Charles Alexander for his dedicated and exemplary leadership during his 4-year term as Chairman, noting that his commitment to integration, innovation and excellence would leave a lasting legacy for patients, staff and partners across the organisation and beyond.

Amanda Pritchard reflected on the past year, recognising that the dedication, compassion and expertise of the Trust’s nearly 24,000 staff remained as strong as ever. Highlights included:

Operational performance

Staff across the Trust continued to work tirelessly to improve performance while providing safe, compassionate and high-quality care through more than three million patient contacts across inpatient care, outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests, day cases, emergency attendances and community services.

An overview of performance during 2025/26 showed that the Trust had:

  • remained among the higher-performing trusts in the country under the NHS Oversight Framework and Provider Capability Assessment criteria
  • consistently achieved the national standard that 78% of patients are admitted or discharged within 4 hours up to February 2026, despite narrowly missing the standard for the year overall following a particularly busy March
  • seen 47,000 new outpatients and completed 42,000 surgical procedures, increases of 9.3% and 3.3% respectively compared with 2024/25
  • reduced the overall waiting list by 12% (almost 15,000 patients) during the year and made significant progress in tackling the longest waits for treatment
  • achieved sustained progress against the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Standard, with 87% of patients receiving a diagnosis within 28 days, compared with the national standard of 80%

Performance against the national standard that 70% of patients should begin cancer treatment within 62 days remained the Trust’s greatest operational challenge and key priority, with performance at 65% in March 2026.

Demand for urgent and emergency care and diagnostic tests continued to grow and remained a further area of focus to ensure patients received timely access to care.

The Trust was delighted to receive ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’ ratings from the Care Quality Commission service inspections of urgent and emergency care at St Thomas’ Hospital and Guy’s Hospital respectively.

Population Health Hub

The Trust continued to build its capability to understand where health inequalities exist so that services could be adapted to deliver fairer, faster and more equitable healthcare across the communities it serves.

Financial performance

The Trust ended the year with a £5.2 million surplus against an agreed breakeven plan and delivered £73 million in savings. Amanda Pritchard emphasised the importance of maintaining financial discipline in the challenging environment facing the NHS, noting that the Trust needed to deliver £115 million in savings to achieve its financial plan for 2026/27.

Under the banner of the Future Ready campaign, the Trust is focusing on improving the quality of services provided to patients and colleagues, while increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

Valuing our people

The latest NHS Staff Survey showed that the Trust scored above the national average in every domain, with 93% of staff saying they were proud to work there. The Trust remained committed to improving the experiences of disabled colleagues and staff from global majority backgrounds, particularly in relation to career progression and bullying and harassment.

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

Looking ahead

The Chief Executive outlined:

  • progress on the Evelina London expansion, including the ambition to build on existing expertise and create a truly comprehensive offer for children and young people
  • progress in delivering a surgical centre at Guy’s Hospital – a new purpose build building providing 6 new operating theatres
  • continuing to push the boundaries of clinical research and new technology improving patient care through areas such as genomics, Artificial Intelligence and robotic surgery

The Chief Executive concluded by introducing a short film showcasing the work of the Trust’s Cancer Centre.

Presentations

A series of presentations showcased innovation and how services continue to improve patient care.

  • Improving patient care through robotic surgery: Ben Challacombe charted the Trust’s pioneering robotics journey and its future as a centre of excellence for training the next generation of robotic surgeons.
  • Supporting healthier neighbourhoods: Shaheen Khan and Sharjeel Hasan provided an overview of local partnership work to integrate services and improve quality and access by redesigning them around the needs of the local population.
  • Our Children’s Hospital Programme: Gubby Ayida and Avey Bhatia highlighted the vision for a comprehensive hospital for children and young people, including its role as the Primary Treatment Centre for paediatric cancer.

Council of Governors' report

Alison Mould, Deputy Lead Governor, presented the annual Council of Governors’ report, highlighting the important role governors play in promoting accountability, transparency and engagement between the Trust and its stakeholders.

The Deputy Lead Governor highlighted national proposals to abolish NHS Foundation Trust membership and Council of Governors arrangements and emphasised the importance of maintaining a strong patient and public voice. The Trust and Council of Governors were working together to consider how meaningful stakeholder and community engagement could continue should the proposed legislative changes be implemented.

The Deputy Lead Governor thanked governors for their time and expertise in representing the interests of members and the communities served by the Trust. The Council of Governors also thanked the Trust’s members, staff, Board of Directors and wider stakeholders for their continued support, engagement and commitment.

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 was preparing its estate to manage the effects of heatwaves
  • failure to respond to a complaint in a timely manner
  • concerns regarding the nationally procured Federated Data Platform
  • how to improve awareness of Type 3c diabetes among clinicians and the public
  • industrial action and the impact of financial challenges on the workforce
  • the role of the NHS in developing the medical curriculum
  • ease of access to services

Close

The Chairman thanked all presenters and attendees for their contributions.

Last updated: September 2026

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