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Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

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The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
TypeNHS trust
HeadquartersWolverhampton Road
Heath Town
Wolverhampton
WV10 0QP[1]
Hospitals
ChairSteve Field
Chief executiveDavid Loughton
Staff8,203[2]
Websitewww.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk Edit this at Wikidata

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (formerly Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust) runs New Cross Hospital and West Park Rehabilitation Hospital in Wolverhampton and Cannock Chase Hospital in Cannock.

In December 2020 it agreed to appoint a joint chair with Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, anticipating plans to form a group model across the sustainability and transformation partnership.[3]

Facilities

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The New Cross Hospital Trust was established in 1994, covered Wolverhampton, the Black Country, South Staffordshire, North Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The trust owns the former eye hospital building in Wolverhampton, which is now derelict.[4] In December 2013 it was announced that the trust would be unable to achieve foundation status for at least six months after a Care Quality Commission inspection raised concerns about staffing levels.[5] In March 2015 it abandoned plans to become a foundation trust.[6]

In October 2014 it was announced that the trust would take over Cannock Chase Hospital formerly run by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.[7]

In February 2019 Dr Steve Field was appointed Chair of the trust.[8]

In March 2020, Cannock Chase Hospital was forced to temporarily close down to assist Wolverhampton New Cross Hospital staff with the care of seriously ill patients.[9]

Primary care

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It took over three GP practices in Wolverhampton in April 2016 as a pilot scheme for vertically integrated care. The 12 GPs became employees of the trust. The practices - Alfred Squire Road Health Centre and Lea Road Medical Practice in Wolverhampton and the MGS Medical Practice in Bilston - have 23,000 registered patients.[10] In June 2017 it took over more practices bringing the total to 12 with 70,000 registered patients and 37 GP partners employed by the trust.[11] In May 2022 it proposed merging the eight GMS contracts it had with its GP practices into one.[12]

It announced a partnership with Babylon Health in January 2020 to develop "digital-first integrated care". The trust itself runs 10 GP practices.[13] In April 2020 it made a deal with the company for citywide coverage of its new COVID-19 care assistant app, which will be available to 300,000 patients registered to Wolverhampton GPs, and all the trust staff.[14] It agreed a new five-year deal with Babylon in August 2021 to use Babylon 360 to support patients at the trust's nine GP practices.[15]

Performance

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The trust was highlighted by NHS England as having 3 of 148 reported never events in the period from April to September 2013.[16]

Mrs Sandra Haynes-Kirkbright was suspended by the trust in July 2012 following allegations made against her by colleagues of bullying, harassment, persistent swearing and unprofessional behaviour. She alleged that the trust cheated in concealing high mortality rates. Her whistle blowing allegations and subsequent treatment have been the subject of investigation by the NHS Trust Development Authority. She was suspended on full pay.[17] In May 2016 an independent review by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff into her case, ordered by Jeremy Hunt, condemned the trust for what it described as "significantly flawed" and "unfair" treatment of her.[18]

The trust was in dispute about £4 million funding for nurses with the Wolverhampton Clinical commissioning group which was subject to arbitration. The arbitration hearing sided in favour of the trust leaving it with £2 million to pay for seven-day working and supervisory ward nurses, and in favour of the CCG for 135 nurses employed to improve staffing on the wards, meaning £2 million was withdrawn. The trust decided in November 2017 that it would reduce the number of full-time equivalent band five registered nurses by 23.58 to a total of 507.85 and increase the number of band four care staff roles from 6 to 30.52 to reflect the addition of 24 nursing associate roles. This decision was criticised by the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing as substitution of nurses and a risk to patients.[19]

In December 2020, the trust reported that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of patients presenting to A&E departments during 2020 was substantially lower than in 2019.[20]

In May 2021, the chief executive of the trust described an unexplained increase in the number of A&E attendances to "absolutely unprecendented levels" throughout the trust.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Contact details". Care Quality Commission. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Annual Report 2018/19". The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Trusts to share chair after NHSE ordered 'rapid' move to group model". Health Service Journal. 15 December 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  4. ^ "NHS bosses forced to spend £320,000 to stop on a derelict hospital being vandalised". Daily Mirror. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Royal Wolverhampton FT bid delayed". Health Service Journal. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  6. ^ "Wolverhampton trust drops foundation status bid". Health Service Journal. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Stafford Hospital: New trust to run renamed hospital". BBC News. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  8. ^ "CQC chief to chair trust with integrated GPs". Health Service Journal. 27 February 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Cannock hospital's minor injuries unit could re-open in June". StaffordshireLive. 1 April 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Hospital trust to take over running of three GP practices". Health Service Journal. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  11. ^ "Wolverhampton Trust takes over 5 more GP practices". Healthcare Leader. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  12. ^ "Hospital trust proposes to merge eight practices under its control". Pulse. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  13. ^ "Babylon and NHS trust reveal 'digital-first integrated care' deal". Health Service Journal. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  14. ^ "Covid app launched for those with 'medium severity' symptoms". Health Service Journal. 3 April 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  15. ^ "Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Babylon partner to deliver digital-first services". Health Tech Newspaper. 17 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  16. ^ "NHS reveals 'never event' figures". Sheffield Star. 13 December 2013. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  17. ^ "Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital worker paid throughout three year suspension". Express and Star. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  18. ^ "NHS whistleblower 'was treated unfairly' after alleging death rate-fixing". The Guardian. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  19. ^ "Trust cuts nurse numbers to make way for nursing associates". Health Service Journal. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  20. ^ Farrington, Dayna. "A&E attendance in region drops again as Covid keeps people at home". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  21. ^ Cardwell, Mark (21 May 2021). "'No explanation' - hospital A&E departments are 'busier than ever'". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
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