NHS South West London Recruitment Hub
Chief Operating Officer
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Place of work: Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals
We're supporting Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust in the search for its next Chief Operating Officer.
Job summary
Healthcare is becoming more connected.
Patients move between hospitals, community services, primary care and specialist teams. Improving care increasingly depends on organisations working together rather than working alone.
As part of the St George's, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group, and working closely with partners across South West London, we're strengthening the way we deliver care for the people and communities we serve. Backed by significant investment, evolving partnerships and ambitious plans for the future, this is a pivotal moment in our journey.
We're looking for an exceptional Chief Operating Officer to help shape what comes next.
Working alongside our Managing Director and Executive Team, you'll provide strategic and operational leadership across our clinical services, ensuring patients receive safe, high-quality care today while helping shape how services are designed and delivered for the future.
This is a role that combines strategic thinking with practical delivery. One day you'll be leading operational performance across a complex acute Trust; the next you'll be driving transformation, strengthening partnerships and creating the conditions for colleagues to deliver their very best.
If you're up for the challenge and motivated by improving services, developing people and bringing people together around a shared purpose, you'll find an opportunity to make a lasting impact - for our patients, our colleagues and the communities we serve.
Main duties:
Operational leadership and performance
- Lead the operational delivery of all clinical services, ensuring patients receive safe, high-quality and compassionate care. You'll drive performance against key national and local priorities while ensuring the Trust remains resilient, responsive and prepared for future challenges.
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Quality, safety & patient experience
- Work alongside clinical leaders to continually improve the quality, safety and experience of care. You'll champion a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring services meet the highest standards of governance and patient care.
Strategic leadership & transformation
- Lead the Trust's operational strategy and major transformation programmes, helping redesign services, improve patient pathways and deliver lasting improvements that support the future of healthcare across South West London.
Partnership & system working
- Build strong relationships across the South West London Integrated Care System, working with partners, regulators and local communities to improve outcomes, tackle health inequalities and deliver more joined-up care.
People leadership & culture
- Provide visible, compassionate leadership that empowers colleagues to succeed. You'll develop high-performing teams, nurture future leaders and foster an inclusive culture where people feel valued, supported and able to thrive.
Financial stewardship
- Ensure the Trust's operational services are delivered sustainably, making the best use of resources while driving efficiencies that protect quality, safety and patient outcomes.
So, why join us?
- Lead at one of the most significant periods of change in our organisation's history.
- Help shape services for more than 500,000 people across South West London and Surrey.
- Work alongside an experienced Executive Team committed to collaborative leadership.
- Play a key role in delivering a £500 million investment in healthcare infrastructure.
- Influence how care is designed, delivered and improved across a large and diverse health economy.
About us
We care for more than half a million people across South West London and Surrey, providing acute hospital services alongside a growing range of community and integrated care services. Every day, our colleagues deliver care that's safe, compassionate and centred on the needs of the people and communities we serve.
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Our organisation is built on partnership. We work closely with local authorities, primary care, community providers and mental health services because we know that improving health doesn't begin and end at the hospital door.
As part of the St George's, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group, we're also strengthening the way we work across our hospitals, sharing expertise, developing services together and creating new opportunities to improve care for patients across South West London.
We're proud of what we've achieved, but we're equally focused on what comes next. Whether that's investing in our estate, improving operational performance or working more closely with partners across the system, we're committed to building services that meet the changing needs of our communities.
That's where this role comes in.
Like every NHS organisation, we're facing significant challenges. We're also fortunate to have committed colleagues, strong partnerships and a clear ambition to keep improving. We believe those things give us a strong foundation for the future, and an exciting opportunity for the person joining us as Chief Operating Officer.
What we're proud of
- More than 7,000 colleagues delivering care across South West London and Surrey.
- Caring for over 500,000 people every year.
- Working as part of the St George's, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group.
- Securing £500 million to build a new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Sutton.
- Strong partnerships that are helping shape more joined-up care across the health system.
- An Executive Team committed to collaboration, openness and continuous improvement.
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