The Trust is stepping up its environmental sustainability action and will publish a detailed 2021-25 Green Plan by the autumn with a programme of initiatives that will place us firmly on the trajectory to net zero. The ambition is to reach a 90% reduction by 2035, reducing the harm to health from carbon emissions and environmental degradation as quickly as possible. The NHS is committed to reaching carbon net zero by 2040.

Significant carbon reductions have already been made at the trust and the current focus is on three main sources of emissions and climate concern - medical gases, transport use and water supply.

You can read more about Frimley Health’s sustainability pledge on our website.

There are lots of ways you can get involved in Frimley Health as a young person! We have recently introduced a brand new youth forum for people aged 11-19 who want to take an active role in helping the Trust to change the way it provides healthcare to young people – email caroline.martin22@nhs.net if you would like to be involved.

 If you’re over the age of 16 you can also volunteer at one or more of our sites. To find out more about volunteering opportunities visit our careers page: careers.fhft.nhs.uk/volunteers/ .

Over 16s can also sign up to be a foundation trust member.

We work closely with all our neighbouring NHS hospitals to ensure that we provide the best possible services for our patients. With the Royal Surrey, for example, we work together as part of the Surrey and Sussex Cancer Alliance and we are both partners in the Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Service.

We’re really sorry that a number of our patients are experiencing significantly longer than normal waits for elective procedures as a consequence of the huge disruption caused due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, this picture is repeated across the NHS.

We are working hard to reduce the length of our waiting lists and have increased activity to above pre-pandemic levels by increasing the number of treatment and outpatient sessions and streamlining processes to make them more efficient.

Patients are being booked in for procedures according to clinical urgency and all patients on the waiting list who have not got their procedure booked in within the next three months will receive a letter from us offering a clinical review to keep in contact – so far we have contacted over 10,000 patients to offer them this service.

Patients can help us to reduce waiting list times by:

• Giving plenty of notice if you wish to  cancel procedures or appointments, so that we can offer these these slots to someone else.
• Taking the first date offered for outpatient, investigation or treatment appointments wherever possible.
• Letting us know as early as possible if you no longer want or need treatment or have received treatment elsewhere.

The 'Big Tea' was a one-off event for the NHS 73rd birthday on 5 July 2021, but there are still plenty of other ways you can help to support the Frimley Health Charity. Have a look at their website ‘get-involved’ page for more information and ideas: www.frimleyhealthcharity.org/get-involved/

Our guest speaker, Dr Sudhir Rathore said: Yes, aortic valve replacement can be done via the transfemoral approach. Currently we do this procedure at the Royal Brompton Hospital but are planning to bring this back to Frimley Health in due course.

Our guest speaker, Dr Sudhir Rathore said: When the diamond drill is used, the calcium is broken down into fine pieces that are roughly the same size as red blood cells and are taken away in the blood stream and kidneys.