The hospital trust serving Brent has merged with a counterpart in Ealing to become one of the country’s biggest healthcare divisions today.
North West London Hospitals and Ealing NHS Trusts are now the London North West Healthcare (LNWH) NHS Trust in a move that saves £19million.
The super-trust will join Central Middlesex, Ealing, Northwick Park and St Mark’s hospitals together and community services across Brent, Ealing and Harrow including Willesden Centre for Health and Care.
The trust includes 8,000 healthcare professionals, which will service a population of 850,000 across the three boroughs.
The multi-million pound saving will span across three years and will see cuts in backroom staffing as part of wider plans to deliver a more streamlined and efficient services to patients.
According to David McVittie, chief executive of the LNWH NHS Trust, who will quit from his role next year “Stronger together” is the tagline of the merger.
He claims that the larger trust will help to improve standards at Northwick Park, in Watford Road, which met its A&E waiting times targets on just two week last year, and bolster investment into areas of weakness.
He said: “We have huge ambitions for the new Trust and for the care it will provide to patients. Working with local GPs and council partners, we will focus on providing services that prevent ill-health and join up care across hospital, community and home.
“We will be able to create larger clinical teams, ensuring that patients receive the specialist care in the right place and at the right time.”
The new trust was officially formed today after it was given the go-ahead by the Department of Health on September 23.
The merger idea stemmed from a meeting between the representatives of the two trusts back in 2011, a consultations process later followed within the three affected boroughs.
Alwen Williams, director at the NHS Trust development authority said: “This merger is great news for patients in North West London. It puts the local NHS on a much more secure footing and will enable the new Trust to make lasting improvements to patient care.”
For more information visit www.lnwh.nhs.co.uk.
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