Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), has been shortlisted for the HSJ’s NHS trust of the year award.
The trust said it went from special measures to being among the top five hospital trusts in London for urgent and emergency care.
“We have made a huge effort to get out of special measures,” BHRUT chief executive Matthew Trainer said.
“We know we have more to do to end corridor care at Queen’s and make sure fewer patients have a poor experience under our care — all this while trying to cut spending by £61million.
“But we’re moving in the right direction.”
The trust managed to cut waiting time with a series of intensive fast-track surgery weeks in orthopaedics and ophthalmology departments.
The target was 800 ophthalmology patients but it actually treated 1,153.
A “better grip on finances” has seen it make £30million savings two years in a row, the trust said, and it is on track to reduce agency spending to £7m this year compared to £47m in 2023.
The trust has also been shortlisted in the performance recovery award category for its palliative end-of-life care.
A member of the palliative team is now based in A&E at both hospitals where they can identify earlier those patients nearing the end of life and can give more compassionate care.
Palliative paramedic Josh Singleton said: “We’re one of very few hospital trusts to offer this. It can mean for some patients being able to die at home as they wish rather than in a busy A&E. We’ve helped reduce length of stay in hospital for palliative patients.”
The trust also reduced the number of stillbirths by treating diabetes during pregnancy, while developing ways to reduce handover times between ambulance crews and A&E.
Staff turnover rates have gone down from 15 per cent to 10pc since 2022, BHRUT said.