Published: 12:09, 14 August 2026

 | Updated: 07:47, 18 August 2026

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust has cut its diabetes and endocrinology care backlog by 99%, with 654 more people receiving appointments.

Cardiology has reduced its waiting list by 37%, seeing an extra 996 patients in nine weeks.

An expansion of pleural services has cut the backlog for those requiring respiratory services by 72%, or 284 patients.

Michael Meredith

Chief strategy officer Michael Meredith said the improvements were an example of Rise - the trust’s new strategy to transform healthcare - in action.

He said: “It’s how we fundamentally change the way we deliver services, working with our community and community partners to bring care closer to home and really change our pathways of care.”

He said: “We are improving services. It’s not all about buildings. It’s not all about the environment. It’s also about how you transform pathways of care.

Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow

“They have been working with system partners, with communities, focusing on patient needs, and each of them has got new models of care, which they’re rolling out. And that’s having a massive impact.

“We’re not standing still. This is just the beginning. We’ve got a lot more to do. Aligning it to the new hospital, aligning to the new ways of working moving forward, really focusing on our patients, our staff and our performance, making sure we’re improving every single day. I think our strategy really is coming to life.”

Other innovations include the launch of an Adult Insulin Pump Service for diabetic patients and a Conduction System Pacing service that benefits heart failure patients closer to where they live.

The new community diagnostic centre at St Margaret's Hospital, Epping

Mr Meredith said the new CDC (Community Diagnostic Centre), which is supporting the development of one-stop diagnostic pathways for patients at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, was a “core component” of improving performance.

The £26 million facility, with a 75-strong team, opened earlier this year and Mr Meredith said: “Our staff love working there. It is a real improvement. The environment is great. They really do feel like they can deliver high-quality care.”

He added: “We’ve had a complete refurbishment of our [Princess Alexandra Hospital] children’s emergency department…It’s completed now, it’s up, it’s running. It’s making a huge difference.

“It’s a modern healthcare working environment, and it’s improved waiting times for children.”

Mr Meredith summed up the Rise strategy shaping the trust’s goals: “We need to make sure our services are designed around the needs of our population, not around the needs of organisations.

“It is really about integrated care close to where it needs to be delivered, in other words, closer to people’s homes and reducing health inequalities. So making sure that everybody has access to our services in a timely way, from all of our communities, and raising standards.”

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