Our Strategy 2024-2030

Clinical Excellence is essential in providing the best possible care to our patients. It involves a commitment to continuous improvement, a dedication to the highest standards of practice and personal and professional growth.

We will achieve this through three key themes:

Continuous quality improvement, research and innovation
Accreditation and recognition: local, national and international
Education, development and succession

We are committed to clinical excellence.

Why

To provide the best possible care to patients through the highest standards of practice and continuous improvement.

How

We will embed continuous quality improvement, research and innovation into everything we do, including digital maturity.

We will become a recognised teaching hospital further exploring commercial and non-commercial relationships.

We will create a motivated workforce through personal and professional growth, education, development and succession planning.

Measuring success

Clinical care should be evidence-based, forward thinking, and continuously improving. Progress will be demonstrated through:

Teaching hospital recognition: achieving key milestones that strengthen our position in education, training, and workforce development
Research and innovation: increase research participation and driving improvements in patient care
Collaboration in clinical networks: strengthen partnerships across the system to share knowledge and enhance research impact
Embedding clinical excellence: achieving accreditations, implementing best practices, and expanding advanced practice roles

Fast-track joint replacement

Case study

At The QEH, we’ve revolutionised joint replacement procedures for hips and knees through our fast-track approach, enabling suitable patients to start their recovery at home shortly after surgery.

This has reduced hospital stays to just 1.2 days for knees and 2.1 days for hips. Patients attend ‘joint schools’ pre-surgery for intensive care and education, and a dedicated team ensures safe and speedy home recovery post-surgery.

This initiative accelerates recovery and frees up hospital resources, with half of our elective surgery patients now going home within 24 hours. Patient satisfaction is high, with an average score of nine out of 10, as they appreciate the excellent service and the comfort of home recovery.

This success is a collaborative effort involving various departments, from physiotherapy to radiology, underscoring our commitment to clinical excellence and innovation for better patient outcomes and hospital efficiency.

Actions taken

Our fast-track model has continued to enable suitable patients to begin their recovery at home shortly after surgery. The QEH now holds the shortest length of stay nationally for partial knee replacements, the fourth shortest for total knee replacements, and the eighth shortest for total hip replacements, a significant improvement from previous national rankings.

Currently, 80% of elective joint replacement patients are discharged within 24 hours, reflecting both clinical confidence and patient readiness. Feedback remains consistently positive, with an average satisfaction score of nine out of 10, and many patients citing the benefit of recovering at home.

This success is due to strong cross-departmental collaboration, including surgical teams, physiotherapy, nursing, and radiology, focusing on clinical excellence and innovation.

Additionally, The QEH has been awarded Gold Quality Data Provider status by the National Joint Registry (NJR), recognising our commitment to high-quality and transparent data reporting and reinforcing our role in contributing to safer, evidence-based practice across the NHS.