The North Mid and Royal Free London Partnership
Following several years of closer working between North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and the Royal Free London group, we are now looking at how we could come together as one organisation. We believe it would enable us to go further and faster in improving services for patients and improving the health of our local community.
North Mid has been a clinical partner with the Royal Free London group since 2017 and we have been in a formal partnership since 2021. Our experience has shown that we can achieve more together than we can apart, delivering better care for local people and more opportunities for our staff.
Over the coming months we will be developing detailed plans for coming together, with North Mid potentially merging to become part of the Royal Free London group alongside Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital.
Our hospitals would continue to provide the same local services. At North Mid, these include A&E, maternity, intensive care, paediatrics, acute surgery, medicine and community services.
However, by coming together as one, we expect to be able to deliver:
- reduced waiting times
- improved access to specialist care locally
- better joined-up community services
- greater opportunities to benefit from the latest medical research and trials of new treatments
- more coordinated action to help people stay healthy, with screening and early intervention services tailored to our different communities.
The plans we are developing will form a business case which will then need to be approved by both trusts’ boards and NHS England. We are working to have the business case completed by summer 2024 and to bring the organisations together in autumn 2024.
Until then, we will continue working together as we do now to provide the best possible care for our patients. We will be talking with our staff, patients and local communities to explain our plans so they can help shape the improvements made possible by our new shared future.
We will share updates on our website and with patients, staff, our local community and other stakeholdershere as this work progresses. In the meantime, you can contact us with any queries or comments at rf.northmid@nhs.net.