Supporting our services to be the very best

Along with improving health through our programmes of work, we are also the proud charity of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

We raise around £6 million a year thanks to the generosity of patients, families, staff, philanthropists and the community. These vital funds enable us to work with the hospitals to support improvements that go beyond what the NHS can provide.

We’re very fortunate to have some of the best health and care professionals in the country working in our hospitals. And we know that their wellbeing is critical for improving health. So we fund a range of activities which support staff welfare and professional development. We also invest in projects that test out new approaches in health and enhance the clinical environment for the benefit of both, staff and patients.

As the Trust charity, we:

• raise funds to support the work across Guy's and St Thomas', working with staff, volunteers, patients and their families, local businesses and philanthropists, and the wider community.
• assign around £3 million a year from donations towards improving patient and staff experience, through our Special Purpose Funds.
• use our fine arts and heritage collection, one of the largest belonging to a health charity, to help transform healthcare settings by creating a more calming, positive and uplifting environment.

Staff welfare

Staff welfare is critical to ensuring Guy's and St Thomas' can provide the very best of care for patients.

We fund activities to support staff to keep well and to continue growing professionally. Our Individual Staff Award scheme helps fund Trust staff to learn new skills and further their knowledge. For example, our support enables staff to attend conferences, or visit and learn from other healthcare organisations. In the last five years we've awarded almost £250,000 to support staff learning and development through Individual Staff Awards.

Patient experience

There’s only so much the NHS can fund. Support from donors plays a major role in supporting patients to have a better experience when they are in one of the Trust’s facilities.

Our Special Purpose Funds manage the donations we receive and help improve patient experience by supporting activities which are over and above what is normally available within NHS budgets. This includes investment into education, research, equipment and patient care across wards, departments and clinics within Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Evelina London Children’s hospitals. Recent funds have helped in many ways, from providing specialist toys for severely disabled children to creating a new app that helps predict a patient's risk of developing inherited types of cancer.

Arts and health at Guy's and St Thomas'

Arts and creativity can have a radical impact on helping people recover and have a better experience while in hospital. We work with the Trust to introduce visual and performing arts to healthcare settings, from employing arts-based methods in training staff, to engaging patients in experimenting with artforms to support recovery. Evidence has shown that the arts can transform the health environment, making it a more conducive place for health and wellbeing, and even shortening hospital stays.

We have a large arts collection, a unique resource that can help make hospitals more positive and uplifting places.

Many of the artworks we own are on display in Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Evelina London Children’s hospitals. We work closely with those leading redevelopments across the hospitals to introduce art and creative elements in the new spaces.