Agenda item
Update on proposed merger of Ealing Hospital NHS Trust (EHT) and the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust (NWLH) and finances
This report provides an update to the committee on the proposed merger between Ealing Hospital NHS Trust (EHT) and the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust (NWLH).
Minutes:
A report updating members on the proposed merger between Ealing hospital NHS Trust (EHT) and the North West London Hospitals (NWLH) NHS Trust was presented to the committee by David Cheesman (North West London NHS Hospitals Trust). The committee was advised that progress continued to be made towards merging the two trusts and it was expected that the earliest that the full business case for the merger would be submitted to the NHS London Board would be July 2013. NHS London had requested that financial modelling of the impact of “Shaping a Healthier Future” programme be included in the business case. At present, it was intended that the merger would go live on 1 April 2014. The committee was advised that the two trusts had begun to combine some back office functions, including the creation of shared IT and Estates departments. The trusts would continue to implement service sharing in other areas. In addition, as a result of vacancies arising in posts at EHT, the Chief Executive of NWLH had become the Acting Chief Executive of EHT and the Director of Nursing at NWLH had assumed the position of the Acting Director of Nursing at EHT. Steady progress was being made towards the financial targets associated with the merger which for 2012/13 equated to circa £16m for NWLH and £14m for EHT. NWLH was forecasting that it would deliver £13.4m of the planned savings, with the balance made up through other non-recurrent measures. The trusts were also working directly with the National Trust Development Authority (NTDA) which was the new NHS governing body due to take over responsibility for the oversight and support of non-Foundation Trusts from 1 April 2013.
During members’ discussion, the committee raised a number of queries. Clarification was sought regarding the non-recurrent measures that would be taken to reduce meet the savings target of NWLH. A concern was also expressed by a member over whether those officers holding dual positions across the two organisations had sufficient capacity to manage the additional responsibilities over a time of significant change.
Tina Benson (North West London NHS Hospitals Trust) provided an example of the non-recurrent measures employed by NWLH to help reach its savings target for the year, explaining that where a vacancy arises in the organisation the Trust might chose to wait for a period before recruiting to the position to release a short term saving. David Cheesman confirmed that he was confident that the officers undertaking corresponding roles within the two organisations were able to manage in the present circumstances. Having one body to work with in the merger process was extremely beneficial. Furthermore, given the financial pressures the organisations were under it was appropriate to make cut-backs on senior posts where possible.
Responding to a further query, David Cheesmen advised that the Shaping a Healthier Future (SaHF) programme created both challenges and advantages for the Trusts. It had been hoped that the merger would have been completed prior to the implementation of SaHF to allow the organisations to undertake the challenges as a joint organisation; however, this had not been possible. SaHF did put pressure on Northwick Park Hospital and work was currently underway to explore issues of capacity.
RESOLVED:
That the report be noted.
Supporting documents:
- 2013-01-29_nwlh_ealing_merger_covering_report, item 8. PDF 53 KB
- 2013-01-29_nwlh_ealing_merger_update, item 8. PDF 54 KB