Friday, 11 April 2008

Hospital Trusts will not merge

The boards of Frimley Park Hospital and Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals have decided not to proceed with plans to merge both hospital trusts at this time.

This joint conclusion was reached following a thorough eight month review to explore the opportunities and practical issues in combining the two trusts. Both trusts found the discussions to be a valuable process which helped to identify some potential benefits from closer working. The trusts concluded that for the time being they would work towards achieving some of these benefits by allowing existing clinical and support networks to mature and through the development of new networks.

Merger discussions were conceived from a meeting of senior doctors in west Surrey which foresaw (in the Matrix report) a merger between acute Hospital Trusts when clinical networks between the local NHS organisations had been further developed. This approach was consistent with Surrey PCT’s ‘Fit for the Future’ programme. Both Trusts have not ruled out the possibility of resuming discussions in the future.

This development does not have any bearing on existing emergency services and levels of care and both trusts share the vision of improving healthcare in Surrey. For example, together they will continue to work with Surrey PCT and other primary care trusts to provide a broader range of services for patients in Surrey.

Both trusts would like to thank all of those involved within our hospitals for their hard work in supporting the merger project.

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