Acquisition
You may have heard that North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust wants to become part of a larger organisation. The Trust Board made this decision in February 2011 as this was the best option for continuing to secure high quality and safe services for the people of north Cumbria.
On 31 January 2012, the Trust Board decided that its preferred bid in its acquisition process is from Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. There will now be a short period of detailed negotiations around the financial arrangements surrounding the acquisition between our Trust, Northumbria, our local health commissioners and NHS North of England (the strategic health authority). You can read our press release by going to the Media section and locating our new articles.
The reasons for deciding on acquisition are as follows:
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High quality care is the number one priority of the Trust. The Trust is one of the best performing trusts in the North West in terms of delivering quality targets such as 18 weeks referral to treatment; four hours A & E waits, and for significantly reducing infection rates
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In the past, the Trust has faced long standing financial pressures caused by providing a full range of services across both hospitals and in addition to this, NHS organisations have been tasked with making additional large-scale savings over the next four years
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In order to sustain our high-quality and safe services for the people of north Cumbria, we would need to be part of a much larger Foundation Trust
Our strategic vision for the future reflects this commitment as follows:
"We will deliver clinical sustainable and high quality acute services from hospitals in north Cumbria by becoming part of an existing Foundation Trust which delivers high quality safe patient care and is financially strong. Together we will develop an organisational approach and critical mass which will enhance access to acute healthcare for all patients across our catchment areas (north Cumbria and other) by combining the synergies of our clinical services and teams, developing high quality innovative service models and new integrated patient pathways."
What is an acquisition?
The acquisition of NHS organisations can be viewed in much the same way as similar transactions in the private sector, where companies will join together or acquire others to either increase strength and stability, develop its market presence or to diversify into new areas of business.
A very recent example of acquisition activity in the NHS is the Transforming Community Services initiative, which has resulted in PCT provider services being ‘acquired’ or ‘merged’ with NHS providers.
For more information about the acquisition of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, please use the links in the menu on the left.
The Trust's Tripartite Formal Agreement (TFA)
This Tripartite Formal Agreement (TPA) confirms the commitments being made by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS North West (Strategic Health Authority) and the Department of Health that will enable achievement of NHS Foundation Trust (FT) Status before April 2014
Updates
Please use the links below to view acquisition updates from the Trust Board meeting held on 15 May 2012: