Our year in numbers: end of year message 2017

2017 has been yet another successful and eventful year for our partnership.

Our fantastic people continue to do us proud, against a very challenging backdrop of financial, operational and regulatory pressures. As a result of the continued hard work and dedication of our staff, our four partner organisations continue to deliver vital and pioneering work for our patients, service users, students and stakeholders. 

This year has seen the additional challenges posed by the tragic major incidents that have taken place in London this year including at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Grenfell Tower, which our organisations have played a central role in responding to.  I would like to once again thank all staff across our partnership, clinical and non-clinical, for their dedication and commitment to repeatedly providing the best possible care – both physical and psychological - as safely and as quickly as possible. 

On top of this, the commitment to partnership working has never been stronger, which has allowed us to make real progress towards delivering our ambitious objectives. 

With this in mind I would like to end the year by taking a look at our partnership’s year in numbers to celebrate some of our highlights of 2017: 

• We published our Innovation Impact Stories, 22 examples of how our Clinical Academic Groups are helping to improve patient care. 

• Five of our Clinical Academic Groups (Behavioural and Developmental Psychiatry, Psychological Medicine, Orthopaedics, Trauma and Plastics, Mood, Anxiety and Personality and Addictions) have published their Outcomes Books, demonstrating the impact of the services we collectively and collaboratively provide. 12 have now been published in total, with a further set to be published in the first part of 2018. 

• More than 20,000 patients across more than 50 different clinics have now been screened for signs of anxiety or depression alongside their physical health needs at our two acute trusts using the IMPARTS service. 

• Nearly 400 of our staff have signed up to be Mind and Body Champions and advocate integrated mental and physical healthcare, and our new animation has received nearly 3,000 views online. 

• Our four first-wave clinical academic institute programmes (Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology, Haematology and Neurosciences) are continuing to bring colleagues together from across our partnership to develop plans for working as one team to improve patient care and research. Good progress is also being made to align our collective academic strength in Women and Children’s Health. 

• We have also announced plans to explore a partnership with Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust to revolutionise cardiovascular and respiratory services for patients. 

• We were named as one of five leading universities announced to receive funding as part of a new UK Dementia Research Institute. We were also awarded £10 million by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund to establish a world-class Advanced Therapies Centre. 

• King's Health Partners’ collaboration with British technology company Buddi was selected by NHS England as one of five companies to test digital technologies in the fight against type 2 diabetes, as part of the NHS Healthier You: Digital Diabetes Prevention Programme. 

• The Local Care Record was rolled out to GP practices in Bromley this year and there were nearly 1.6 million patient records viewed through the system across our three boroughs in 2017. We will start next year by linking it up with the Connect Care system in Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley to ensure that joined up care is being provided right across south east London. 

• Our partnership continued to lead the way in patient research, with 48,000 patients taking part in clinical studies and all three of our trusts increasing their numbers of clinical trials.   

• 17 resources were added to the King’s Health Partners Learning Hub in 2017, meaning we now have 11,500 members of staff registered to access 96 resources.

• Palliative Care was named as the twenty-second King’s Health Partners Clinical Academic Group in recognition of its unique and outstanding offering in clinical care, research and training. 

• Countless individuals and teams from across our partnership have been shortlisted for and won awards and been recognised with personal honours in 2017 – while there are too many to mention here, all have been deserving of their success. 

As ever, I am confident that the next 12 months will see us build on this excellent progress. While it remains a time of political and economic uncertainty, our leadership remains certain that by working in partnership we can continue to achieve excellence for the people we serve. 

I wish you all a happy and healthy festive season.

Professor Sir Robert Lechler

Executive Director, King’s Health Partners