Former Post Health Correspondent and now senior staff writer at the British Medical Association Peter Blackburn takes a closer look at the failed merger between Nottingham University Hospital and Sherwood Forest Hospitals trusts.
A trust merger designed to improve patient safety and rescue a failing trust was scuppered by rushed deadlines and financial and legal ‘impracticalities’, it has emerged.
NHS leaders set a target of just nine months to bring NUH (Nottingham University Hospitals) NHS Trust and SFH (Sherwood Forest Hospitals) NHS Foundation Trust together despite no similar process ever having taken place – but it was mired in practical issues, such as how to transfer liabilities from the dissolved trust into another which was heavily in deficit.
Senior managers at NHS Improvement have said they made the decision to cancel the merger before any detailed talks about the financial package – needed to make the rescue bid work – were held with the Department of Health, despite the passing of more than eight months since the move was announced.