FHFT Annual Report

Our staff worked under a lot of pressure. They also made changes that helped patients get care, tests and information more easily. 

We provide hospital and community services for around 900,000 people. These people live in parts of Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and South Buckinghamshire. 

Most of our care is provided at Frimley Park Hospital, Wexham Park Hospital and Heatherwood Hospital. We also provide some appointments, tests and care in local places that may be closer to people’s homes. 

The Trust is run by people who lead, manage and check our work. Their job is to make sure care is safe, money is used carefully, and patients, staff and local people are listened to. 

This was a challenging year. Our emergency departments were very busy. Some patients waited in corridors because there were not enough beds available at the time they needed one. This is called corridor care. It is not the care we want patients to have. 

More people also needed mental health support. This added pressure to urgent and emergency care. Urgent and emergency care means help for people who are very unwell, badly injured, or need care quickly. 

Frimley Park Hospital also had to manage building problems caused by RAAC. RAAC is a lightweight building material used in many public buildings in the past. It can become weak if it gets wet. This matters because weak buildings can affect where patients can be cared for safely. 

Even with these pressures, there was progress. The Trust reduced the number of patients waiting for treatment by 23,000. This means many more people moved closer to getting the care they needed. 

The Trust also improved referral to treatment times. This is the time between being referred by a GP or another health professional and starting hospital treatment. 

By the end of the year, 11% more patients started treatment within 18 weeks. More than 9 out of 10 patients said they were satisfied with their care. The Trust also met national targets for improving urgent and emergency care by March 2026. 

The Trust opened the new Slough Community Diagnostic Centre. A diagnostic centre is a place where people can have tests, scans and checks. These tests help find out what may be wrong and what care a person may need next. 

The Trust also sent in an early planning document for the future of Frimley Park Hospital. This document explains why change is needed and what options could be considered. It does not mean building work has started.

Frimley Health is an NHS foundation trust. This means it is part of the NHS. It has some freedom to manage its own services and money. Patients, staff and local people can also have a say in how it is run. 

We have around 14,000 staff and run three main hospitals. We also provide specialist care, community care, outpatient appointments and tests. 

Our long-term plan is called FHFT 2030. It explains what we want to achieve by 2030. We want care to be kind, effective and modern. 

Our main aims are: patients who are very satisfied, staff who feel involved, buildings and equipment that are fit for the future, and excellent care. 

Our values are committed to excellence, working together and facing the future. These values matter because they affect how patients and families feel when they use our services. 

There were many changes that patients, families and staff may notice. More people got care sooner. More tests were available. Digital tools improved. Staff worked on helping patients leave hospital safely when they were well enough. 

Fewer patients waited more than 52 weeks for treatment. By the end of the year, this was less than 1 in every 100 people on the waiting list. This means fewer people had very long waits for planned care. 

Cancer care improved. 82% of patients started treatment within 62 days. 87.2% of patients were told if cancer was diagnosed, ruled out, or if a treatment decision had been made within 28 days. 

This matters because waiting for cancer tests or treatment can be very worrying for patients and families. Faster answers can help people know what will happen next. 

A major improvement was the opening of the Slough Community Diagnostic Centre. It brings scans, X-rays, blood tests and other checks into one place. It is expected to provide up to 150,000 extra tests each year, closer to where many people live. 

Operating theatres were used more often. An operating theatre is the room where surgery happens. This helps more patients have their operations sooner. 

Fewer people missed outpatient appointments. Outpatient appointments are appointments where people come to hospital or a clinic but do not stay overnight. This matters because missed appointments mean other people may wait longer. 

A project at Wexham Park helped patients leave hospital safely sooner. This reduced the average time people stayed in hospital by 16%. Leaving hospital safely is important because people often recover better at home when the right support is in place. 

The Trust kept strong ratings from the Care Quality Commission, known as the CQC. The CQC checks hospitals and care services in England. It looks at whether care is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. 

Frimley Park and Heatherwood were rated Good. Wexham Park was rated Outstanding. NHS England rated the Trust as green. This means NHS England had strong confidence in how the Trust was running its services.

Some of the hardest parts of the year directly affected patients. Emergency departments stayed very busy. Some patients had to wait too long. Some patients were cared for in corridors while waiting for a bed. The Trust knows this is not the experience patients should have. 

Frimley Park Hospital also had to manage building problems caused by RAAC. Three wards opened in the new Frimley Park Hospital extension, previously called M Block, during April 2025. This gave the hospital more beds for patients who needed to stay in hospital. 

This helped reduce some pressure. But some older buildings still made it harder to move services around. This can affect where patients are seen and how quickly beds become available. 

Stopping infections from spreading remained very important. This is called infection prevention and control. It includes hand washing, cleaning, protective equipment and careful checks when patients are unwell. 

There were fewer cases of some infections. But cases of healthcare-associated E. coli bacteraemia increased. Healthcare-associated means linked to care in a hospital or healthcare setting. Bacteraemia means bacteria in the blood. This is serious and needs quick treatment.

Safe care and learning from problems remained a priority. The Trust strengthened the meetings, checks and decisions that help keep services safe. This is sometimes called governance. 

The Trust also developed how it learns from patient safety incidents. A patient safety incident is when something happens during care that could have harmed, or did harm, a patient. 

Staff reported slightly more incidents. The Trust sees this as a sign that staff are continuing to speak up when they are worried. Incidents causing moderate harm or above went down. Falls reporting also went down. 

The Trust reported five Never Events in 2025/26. This was the same number as the year before. Never Events are very serious incidents that should be preventable when the right safety checks are followed. 

The Trust responded by reviewing safety checks, strengthening patient identification checks, asking for an external review and starting a senior-led improvement programme in April 2026. Regular patient identification checks help make sure the right patient gets the right care. 

A big part of the report is about staff. Supported staff are more able to give safe, kind and reliable care. The Trust published plans to improve staff wellbeing, belonging, inclusion, leadership and listening. 

There were signs of progress. Frimley Health was in the top 12 acute trusts nationally for staff recommending it as a good place to work. Acute trusts are NHS organisations that mainly provide hospital care. 

The Trust was also in the top 10 for how quickly it recruited new staff. This helped reduce the need to use temporary staff. Temporary staff can be helpful, but patients often benefit when teams are stable and know their services well. 

The report also shows that senior staff became more diverse. This matters because different backgrounds and experiences can help leaders understand more about the people and communities they serve. 

More than half of new starters completed FX White Belt training. This is practical training that helps staff solve problems and improve care in their own teams.

Some improvements were about making care easier to use, not just faster. The Trust improved appointment reminders, digital letters and the MyFrimleyHealth app. Patients can choose how they prefer to receive some information. 

This helped reduce missed outpatient appointments. About 2,000 more appointments were attended each month. This means more people were seen and fewer appointment slots were wasted. 

The Trust also worked to make patient information leaflets easier to understand. It introduced MyChart bedside in emergency departments. This helps patients see information about their care and take part in decisions where possible. 

These changes matter because healthcare can feel confusing or frightening. Clear information can help patients and families understand what is happening, what to do next and who to ask for help. 

The report shows a stronger focus on fair care. Fair care means people should have a good chance of getting the care they need, no matter where they live, how much money they have, or what barriers they face. 

The Trust set up a Health Inequalities Oversight Group. This group looks at work to reduce unfair differences in care, patient experience and health outcomes. 

This work is linked to Core20PLUS5. This is an NHS approach to supporting people and communities who are more likely to have poorer health. It helps NHS organisations focus on people who may need extra support. 

One example was a check-in call project. Staff phoned some patients from poorer areas before outpatient appointments. They checked whether the patient could attend and asked if anything might make it difficult to come. 

This is a simple but important example. Instead of assuming people do not come to appointments because they do not want to, the Trust is trying to understand what gets in the way and how it can help.

Frimley Excellence is the Trust’s way of improving services. It helps local teams look at problems and make small, practical changes that can improve care for patients. 

One example helped patients leave hospital safely from four wards at Wexham Park. The average stay went down from 13.93 days to 11.66 days. This helped patients get home sooner and helped free beds for people who needed hospital care. 

The Trust also used more digital tools. These included tools to help staff make decisions, see where patients are in their care, and understand where pressure may build in services. 

Some of this work uses AI. AI means artificial intelligence. It is technology that can help people spot patterns and support decisions. Staff still need to use their judgement and clinical knowledge. 

The aim is to make care smoother and safer. For patients, this can mean less waiting, clearer plans and better support from staff.

Frimley Park Hospital is part of the national New Hospital Programme. This is because some buildings have safety problems linked to RAAC. It is also because the hospital was built for a much smaller population than it now serves. 

During 2025/26, the Trust sent in an early planning document for a new hospital. It also improved how the programme is checked and managed. The Trust worked with partners to think about how future care could work for patients. 

The Trust also started early conversations with local people. This included people and communities who are not always included in NHS planning. 

There was no building work during the year. Current plans suggest building work could possibly start in 2028/29. This depends on national approval and further checks.

The Trust’s Green Plan 2025–2028 explains how it will reduce harm to the environment. This matters because climate change can affect people’s health, services and local communities. 

The NHS aims to reach net zero by 2045 for emissions it can directly affect. Net zero means reducing harmful gases as much as possible and balancing the rest in other ways. 

This year, the Trust installed solar panels, sent no waste to landfill, invested £8 million in greener projects, designed new buildings to use less carbon and started a Green Champions Network. 

Plans for the coming year include making care less harmful to the environment, using more virtual wards, using more equipment that can be cleaned and used again, reducing single-use waste, adding more electric vehicle charging points and stopping piped nitrous oxide systems where possible. Nitrous oxide is a gas used in healthcare. 

Looking ahead to 2026/27, the Trust plans to keep improving access to care and reduce the longest waits. It also plans to expand same-day emergency care, strengthen virtual wards and work more closely with GP practices, community services and other local partners. 

Same-day emergency care means some patients can be checked, treated and go home on the same day without needing to stay overnight. Virtual wards mean some patients can receive hospital-level care at home, with support and monitoring from NHS teams. 

The Trust also plans to make staff and equality plans part of everyday work, develop useful digital tools, continue the New Hospital Programme, reduce unfair differences in care and keep improving services through Frimley Excellence. 

The direction is clear. Care needs to be safer, easier to access, more joined up and more human. Our annual report shows real progress. It is also honest that there is still more to do for patients, families, carers and staff. 

We want patients, families, carers, staff and local people to help shape what happens next. 

The Trust’s money remained under pressure this year. This means costs were high and there was not much extra money. 

The year ended with an adjusted surplus of £5.0 million. A surplus means income (money coming in) was higher than spending (money going out) after some accounting items were taken out. 

The official accounts showed a deficit of £9.6 million. A deficit means spending was higher than income. This was because of a £14.5 million accounting adjustment linked to land and buildings, not because the Trust spent £14.5 million more on day-to-day care. 

The Trust made £48.4 million of savings and other changes to use money better. Savings here means finding safer and smarter ways of working so the same or better care costs less. The Trust says it linked this work to quality and safety, so savings did not simply mean “do more with less”. 

Staff pay was the Trust’s biggest cost. The total staff cost in 2025 to 2026 was £785.9 million. The Trust also reduced its use of bank and agency staff to less than 1% of the pay bill, which can help control costs and support stable teams for patients. 

The Trust spent £0.483 million on consultancy and £2.043 million on exit packages. Exit packages included a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme. This is where staff and the Trust agree that someone will leave, with a payment, as part of changing services or structures. 

Independent auditors checked the Trust’s accounts and financial controls. They did not find any major problems with financial sustainability, governance or value for money. This means they were broadly satisfied that public money is being used properly. 

For patients, families and staff, the key message is that money is tight, but the Trust is working hard to use every pound wisely while keeping care safe and improving services over time.