New health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has visited staff and patients at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, where he underlined his mission to cut waiting times.

He also hosted a town hall meeting with health representatives from across the region to discuss the issues facing services.

The visit comes after he ordered an independent investigation into the NHS last week.

Heatherwood Hospital exclusively performs planned surgery, diagnostics and outpatients’ services mainly focusing on high volume, low complexity surgery such as orthopaedics, ophthalmology, gynaecology and urology.

Caroline Hutton, chief Eexecutive (interim) for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust which runs Heatherwood Hospital said: "We are very proud of what we have been able to achieve for our patients through new ways of working and innovation using, for example, AI, digital patient records and collaboration with health and care partners to provide better care more efficiently.

"We were delighted to have the chance to share with the new Secretary of State how our dedicated planned care hospital is enabling us to reduce waiting lists, including maintaining planned surgery and procedures during winter challenges and how we are sharing our learning throughout the NHS as a Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) surgical elective hub."

Streeting said: "The NHS is broken. Millions of patients are waiting too long for treatment, often in pain and discomfort.

"But services like those I’ve seen today at Heatherwood Hospital show that there are still great things happening in the health service. My job as Health Secretary is to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. I’m talking to patients, frontline staff, and NHS leaders about what needs to change.

"We are determined to turn around the NHS so it can be there for all of us when we need it, once again. The NHS saved my life when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and I can’t think of a better way to repay my debt than to help save the NHS."