A double lung transplant patient from Mansfield Woodhouse will be talking about her experience when waiting for life-saving surgery during an open event and annual general meeting for Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on Monday, September 26.

All members of the public have beenencouraged to attend the open event, which will start at 3.30pm at King’s Mill Conference Centre, on the King’s Mill hospital site, Sutton-in-Ashfield. The afternoon will include a healthcare information market place as well as a session by Debra, who is supporting Sherwood Forest Hospital’s Second Chance organ donation campaign.

At 5.30pm, attendees can then attend the Trust’s Annual General Meeting, which will include the formal presentation of the annual report and accounts.

Trust chairman Louise Scull said: “The 12 months to the end of April 2016 were challenging and saw a major programme of improvement being put in place. We are looking forward to sharing with local people the journey we have taken over the past year to deliver significant improvements to our services.

“It is still early days, but we are pleased to report a number of significant improvements following the Care Quality Commission’s inspection in October 2015. Our hospitals were re-inspected in July this year and, while we are still awaiting the formal report, the good progress made was noted by inspectors during their recent visit.

“For example, we are now one of the best performing Trusts when it comes to managing the potentially fatal condition sepsis.

“The number of falls, as well as hospital-acquired cases of clostridium difficile, are down by a third compared to the previous year.

“In addition to these improvements in quality and safety, we also met our cancer waiting time targets, and the Kings Mill emergency department (ED) performance is among the best in the country. As a result, ED staff have been invited by NHS Improvement to share their expertise with other ED teams in the region to help improve their performance against the four-hour targets.

“We are proud to share these improvements, particularly as we approach our proposed merger with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (planned for 2016/17). That said, we fully recognise that we have more to do, and our journey of improvement continues.”