Providing a brilliant standard of care for all Londoners has always been our goal. While reforms have been at the forefront of people's minds recently, we continue to improve patient care and safety, and take steps to sort out finances.

We have identified three priorities that will make a tremendous difference to healthcare in London.

1. Great performance, great care
2. Getting ready for 2013
3. Keeping Londoners healthy

These priorities have been chosen to reflect what is most important in London and will make the biggest difference to healthcare in the capital. We want to continue stepping up our game and hand over an even stronger legacy.

Great performance, great care

Delivering great performance has to be a top priority. With all the changes going on across the NHS, it is essential to focus on safety, quality and money. Sara Coles, Director of Performance, will lead on this area. Her team is already preparing for winter pressures ready to support hospitals to cope with the demands of more patients being admitted for flu and other winter illnesses such as vomiting.

Given the NHS's current profile in the news, it can almost be guaranteed that, more than ever, the focus will be on how we perform. We are therefore working hard to ensure that we explain our results and performance effectively to staff and stakeholders.

Getting ready for 2013

London is proud to have a valuable role in shaping and developing new organisations. Sheree Axon and her team are managing plans to progress bodies such as Clinical Commissioning Groups, the Health and Wellbeing Board, and National Trust Development Agency. Our expert knowledge and years of success and experience places us in a strong position to lead on these changes and make sure London is ready for 2013.

Keeping Londoners healthy

Patients are the reason we come to work. They are at the centre of everything the NHS does and in this great city we are committed to making Londoners even healthier.

Over the coming months we will drive through changes to provide better and safer hospitals, better care closer to home, and stronger specialist care. We are already starting to implement our agreed model for cancer services. And we are happy to announce that our successful stroke work is ready to be handed over as business as usual from our Strategy and Commissioning Development directorate to the Performance directorate.

Tthe Strategy and Commissioning directorate has a strong focus on integrated care through a new programme of work, and we are confident that we will make great strides in this area before April 2013.