The new boss of the hospital group that runs Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton started this week, with his first visit to the children’s hospital on the site. The merger plan that will shape its future has still not been published.
Matthew Shaw took over as chief executive of St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group, known as GESH, on 8 April. He is the first permanent leader of the merged group since it was formed in 2021.
Shaw spent his first morning at St Helier Hospital’s emergency department before visiting the maternity unit and then the paediatric department at Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children in Roehampton. The trust said he “started his first day where it matters most, alongside colleagues delivering frontline care.”
He joins from Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he was chief executive for eight years. An orthopaedic surgeon by background, Shaw trained at St George’s Hospital Medical School earlier in his career before holding senior roles including medical director and deputy chief executive at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
Sir Mark Lowcock, the GESH chair, described Shaw as having “an outstanding track record as a leader in the NHS, as well as a personal style of warmth and openness.”
GESH runs St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Epsom Hospital, St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, and Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton. It employs 17,000 staff across all sites.
What he inherits
Shaw replaces James Blythe, who served as interim chief executive and oversaw a critical period for the group. It was Blythe who took the formal merger plan, known as a strategic outline case, through the board meeting on 5 March. He told the public board it would be submitted to NHS England “later this month.” He then left to become permanent chief executive of Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.
A month later, the trust’s website still says it “intends to submit” the merger plan. NHS England has no public record of receiving it. Putney.news emailed GESH on 8 April asking whether the document has been submitted. No response has been received.
This follows a pattern. When the board voted to pursue the merger in March, no announcement was made. No press release was issued. The four local MPs were told indirectly. The decision contradicted a commitment made when the group was formed in 2021, when the trust told the public: “The organisations are not merging.”
The group has also submitted a five-year plan to NHS England covering 2026/27 to 2030/31. That document, submitted in February, has not been published either. Job advertisements for a new managing director of Epsom and St Helier reference the “ambitious five-year plan” but residents have not been given the chance to read it.
Queen Mary’s Hospital has already seen services change without public notice. Its operating theatre was closed during 2024/25 as a cost-saving measure. No consultation was held.
Shaw arrives at a trust where the gap between what residents are told and what is actually happening has been a consistent problem. His visit to Roehampton on day one was a welcome signal. Whether it is followed by the transparency the merger process has lacked so far is the question that matters.
Shaw’s first public board meeting is on 8 May at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton. The next board meeting at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton is on 9 July, in the Sheen and Richmond Rooms. Board meetings are open to the public. Questions can be submitted up to 24 hours in advance to board@stgeorges.nhs.uk.
