ACUTE HOSPITAL PARTNERSHIP FOR NORTH WEST LONDON
The four acute NHS trusts in north west London are to come together under a single board in common from autumn 2022. They are the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (FT), Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS FT, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.
The move will help the organisations make the most effective use of their collective resources to provide better care, for more people, more fairly. This will prove particularly important as the whole NHS seeks to tackle longer waiting times for planned care, and increasing pressure on urgent and emergency services.
The four trusts will remain independent organisations, working closely with their local authorities, patient groups, and other partners. They will each create a committee of their own board directors who will come together to form the new board in common, led by Matthew Swindells, the new Chair in Common. It will meet four times a year in public, while individual trust boards will continue to meet in public at least once a year.
Each trust will still have board subcommittees, and their reports will be presented at board in common meetings, along with those from the new cabinet. The four organisations will also continue to publish trust-level data to help ensure continued local transparency and accountability.
The trusts have pledged to continue to strengthen involvement with patients, residents and stakeholders to understand and respond to their needs.
Matthew Swindells said, “Our trusts worked together with extraordinary results during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. These partnerships are helping us to see our patients more swiftly and reduce waiting times.
“The new Board in Common will now help us make strategic decisions together, so we can share best practice, use our resources in the best way for all our patients, and develop consistently high quality services.”
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