Annual report summary 2024/25

Throughout 2024/25, staff across the Trust have worked tirelessly to provide safe, compassionate and high-quality care to as many patients as possible.

The first half of the year was notable for the very significant challenges we faced following a major cyber-attack on Synnovis, our pathology provider. The second half of the year was marked by a relentless focus on restoring activity and delivering our recovery plan.

Through the collective efforts of our staff we have ended 2024/25 in a strong position and performed well against national operational standards.

Emergency care – Despite the continued high demand for emergency care, particularly during the busy winter months, our emergency department exceeded the national 4-hour standard and is among the best performing trusts in the country.

Planned care – We have made progress in reducing the number of patients waiting for planned (elective) care. We have reduced our overall waiting list by 20,000 and eliminated the longest waits for all but a handful of patients.

Cancer care – Our performance against the Faster Diagnostics Standard for cancer patients has remained strong, and over 80% of patients receive a diagnosis within 28 day (national standard 77%).

However, we have continued to struggle to deliver the national standard that 70% of patients should receive their first cancer treatment within 62 days. As a result, we remain in NHS England's tiering programme.

We are working hard to reduce the time that patients wait for treatment to begin, especially where a patient’s care pathway started at another Trust.

Diagnostic tests – Demand for a wide range of diagnostic tests has continued to rise. Whilst this remains a significant challenge, we have successfully halved our diagnostic waiting times since their peak at the time we launched Epic, our new electronic health record system.

We know that we have more work to do to achieve the national standard, and we remain in NHS England’s tiering programme for this too.

The Trust's Adjusted Financial Performance at the end of the financial year was a surplus of £12.7 million against a planned target of breakeven. This is the measure used by NHS England to rate the Trust's financial performance.

The reported position after making a number of technical adjustments was a deficit of £25.5 million.

We set ourselves an ambitious cost improvement programme of £93.8 million, which reflected the level of savings required to deliver our financial plan, achieve national efficiency targets and treat an increased number of patients.

Despite industrial action and the Synnovis cyber-attack, which reduced our activity during the first part of the year, we successfully delivered £72.1 million of savings at year end – a significant proportion of the planned cost improvement target we had set.

Our 10-year sustainability strategy sets out our commitment to providing sustainable healthcare and our plans to comply with the ‘Delivering a Net Zero NHS’ report.

This commitment is central to our Trust strategy to provide 'better, faster, fairer healthcare for all'. While we have a long way to go to reach Net Zero we have been able to reduce our NHS Carbon Footprint (the emissions we directly control) by 3% over the year.

Our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus (which we can only influence) has increased by 5% which is in line with an increase in non-pay spend across the Trust.

Reducing emissions – Following the launch of our Green Travel Plan in August 2023, we have continued to support staff, patients and visitors to use more active and sustainable transport to reduce our carbon emissions. Electric vehicles now make up 80% of our staff salary sacrifice fleet, and we are working to ensure all Trust vehicles are fully electrified by 2030.

Greenspace and air quality – A year after publishing our Clean Air Plan we are making progress in reducing air pollution and raising awareness of the issue with our staff, patients and visitors.

We are engaging with suppliers whose vehicles cause spikes in pollution levels and have installed anti-idling signage to remind all drivers that vehicle emissions harm health.

At Harefield Hospital we have created a new 4-acre wildflower meadow, and a new greenspace next to the Healing Garden. 3 of our community sites were awarded funding to enhance or create new nature-friendly gardens.

Reducing waste – We are committed to conserving resources in everything we do. Since our 'Gloves Off' campaign was launched in September 2024, we have purchased 1.6 million fewer gloves than the previous year, saving 8 tonnes of plastic waste and £200,000.

We also launched our first inhaler recycling scheme to help avoid inhalers going into landfill.

Task force on climate-related disclosures – The Trust Board has responsibility for oversight, assessment and management of climate-related issues. We track our progress through a range of environmental impact indicators and are working to ensure environmental sustainability is a central part of our ongoing planning and reporting across the Trust.

Our 'Better, faster, fairer healthcare for all' strategy to 2030 sets out our commitment to tackle harmful and avoidable differences in health and healthcare access across our communities.

Lambeth and Southwark are home to some of the most diverse patient populations in the UK, and an above average number of people experience high levels of deprivation. These inequalities have a significant impact on health outcomes - such as a shorter life expectancy and fewer years lived in good health.

Through our Population Heath Hub, in 2024/25 we have focused on ensuring our data is as robust as possible, as well as building the capacity and expertise needed to tackle health inequalities and deliver personalised care to the populations we serve.

For 2024/25 the Trust is able to report against some of the key indicators outlined in NHS England’s Statement on Information on Health Inequalities.

Across the Trust, and with our partners on the South East London Integrated Care Board, we are working hard to ensure healthcare equity is embedded into our treatment pathways.

The wellbeing and welfare of our 23,700 staff remains an absolute priority. 

We achieved a response rate of 57% for the 2024 NHS Staff Survey, which was significantly above the national average of 49% and 19% higher than the Trust’s 2023 response rate.

Our scores improved in all areas and our results were identified as 'statistically significantly higher' than 2023 by the NHS Staff Survey Coordination Centre. We scored above the national average in all NHS People Promise elements and themes.

Our engagement scores remain well above national average – we were 4th nationally and 2nd in London for staff recommending the Trust to a friend or relative as a place to receive care or treatment. These positive scores are reinforced by 91% of our staff saying that they were proud to work at the Trust.

While the 2024 survey highlights a notable improvement in overall employee experience compared to recent years, several key challenges persist – with certain areas still falling below the national average.

Our top priority is to enhance the experience of all staff, with a particular emphasis on supporting disabled colleagues and those from global majority backgrounds, especially in relation to career progression, bullying, harassment, and burnout.

The Trust has seen some year-on-year progress across these areas and we remain committed to driving meaningful and lasting improvements.