The Christie NHS FT Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

North of England as a whole, reflecting their status as esteemed cancer research scientists selected to join a group of the greatest minds in medical science. As a foundation trust, we are accountable to the communities we serve, and as such our public members play an essential part in sharing their opinions, shaping our future and making a vital contribution to how our services are developed. We acknowledge their extremely valuable input. This report looks back on the highlights of the last 12 months but also establishes our plans and aspirations for the year ahead. Whilst there is still much uncertainty about how the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact on The Christie throughout 2020-21 we are as well prepared as possible to make sure patients get the treatment, information and support they need. Without a doubt, the strength of our underlying patient centred culture, highly motivated and compassionate staff, oncology expertise and organisational culture will ensure that we can respond in an agile and effective way to the new demands. As we look ahead to 2020-21 we know that there will be further challenges to face, in particular the need to respond to an increase in demand for our services from patients whose treatment has been paused temporarily and from new patients who have delayed contacting their GP about worrying symptoms of cancer and who are then referred to us at a later stage in their prognosis. We are determined to continue to put patients at the heart of everything we do and do everything possible to provide the best possible treatment and care in the year ahead. We remain focussed on innovation and improvement to ensure that all of our services are truly world-class.

Trust through its fundraising activities and delivers projects, equipment and improvements that are over and above what the NHS funds. The charity has over 50,000 supporters who helped raise £15.3m last year. This year saw the continued growth of our School of Oncology. The Christie School of Oncology is a world class teaching centre, bringing together professional and pre-registration education, plus continuing professional development activities into one structure. This makes us uniquely able to support health care professionals at all stages of their career. It has also played a key role in helping Trust staff to retrain, at very short notice, to undertake new roles and duties in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside the School of Oncology, our Christie International arm continues to make progress, offering expertise and education to other cancer centres across the globe. This year, we have acted as advisors to both Cork University Hospital and the Kenyan Ministry of Health and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH), to help improve cancer outcomes. Everything we achieve at The Christie is only possible because of our staff and their hard work and dedication. We continue to perform well in staff surveys, with the majority of employees saying they would recommend the hospital to family and friends. The success of our clinicians also continues to be celebrated. The Academy of Medical Sciences has awarded Fellowships to Director of Research, Professor John Radford and Professor Rob Bristow the research division’s Chief Academic Officer and Co-Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre. Professor John Radford and Professor Rob Bristow are the only two fellows to be elected this year from the North West. And they are two of just three clinicians from the

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