Royal Surrey shortlisted as ‘Trust of the Year’ in England’s most prestigious healthcare awards | News

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted in four categories of the prestigious 2025 HSJ Awards, including the coveted Trust of the Year category. This recognition highlights the exceptional work and innovation demonstrated by the trust’s teams and their dedication to providing the highest standard of patient care.

This year’s awards attracted more than 1,250 entries from across the health sector. Royal Surrey has been shortlisted for:

• Trust of the Year: This category honours the country’s highest performing NHS trusts, demonstrating exceptional performance and a commitment to improving healthcare. Key criteria include overall vision, financial sustainability, staffing and cultural challenges, patient safety, and clinical excellence.
• Acute Sector Innovation of the Year: This recognises the trust’s self-removal of catheter scheme for prostate cancer patients following their robotic surgery, pioneered by the Urology team. Patients are taught how to safely remove their own catheters at home, avoiding return trips to the hospital. This initiative, part of a larger effort to reduce the NHS carbon footprint and improve patients’ experience, has shown a 100% success rate and high patient satisfaction.
• Partnership of the Year: The trust’s Maternity team, together with Maternity Neonatal Voices Partnership, are shortlisted for the Partnership of the Year award. This is in recognition of their collaborative work to create the Parent Portal, an online resource that provides accessible, evidence-based information and resources for expectant parents.
• Workforce Initiative of the Year: Royal Surrey and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust were shortlisted for their new temporary staffing collaborative service, NHS People Flexi-Bank. Hosted by Royal Surrey, this Flexi-Bank will pool bank staff from across the region and allow them to work shifts at any trust within the collaborative using a single system and process. 

Louise Stead, Group Chief Executive of Royal Surrey and Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts said: “It is a real honour to have been shortlisted in four categories of these prestigious awards. We’ve had a great year at Royal Surrey, with our recent ‘Outstanding’ designation by the Care Quality Commission and numerous innovations from our incredible teams. 

“I am extremely proud of my colleagues across Royal Surrey for their continual efforts to improve care for our patients and want to thank them for everything they do.”

The 2025 awards judging panel was made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, including; Matthew Style, Director General, Secondary Care and Integration, Department of Health & Social Care, Mark Cubbon, Chief Executive Officer, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services, NHS England as well as a range of esteemed Chief Executives from NHS Trusts across the UK.

HSJ Editor Alastair McLellan commented:

“On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Royal Surrey on being shortlisted as a finalists in these categories, including Trust of the Year. All of the applications represent the ‘very best of the NHS’ and often leave our esteemed panel of judges with an impossible choice!

“We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in November, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and continuously driving for better service. But we never forget that the award ceremony is not just a celebration within a night, but a platform to recognise the hard work of all our NHS staff, all year round.”

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 20th November 2025 at Evolution London.