St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London has been awarded Foundation Trust status, following positive financial and clinical assessments by regulator Monitor and the Care Quality Commission.
As a Foundation Trust, which now make up 60% of all NHS trusts, St George’s has broken away from central government control, picking up a range of new freedoms that should help it better shape its services around the needs of its patients.
“This is great news for the trust, which benefits from new freedoms, but even better news for its patients, who can have a greater say over their health services,” noted Miranda Carter, Executive Director of Provider Appraisal at Monitor.
But while FT status was approved, Monitor did stress that St George’s failed to meet the national target for seeing A&E patients within four hours in quarter three of 2014/15, and in three of the previous four quarters, which would normally trigger concern.
However, the regulator said it is content with the trust’s action plan and will closely monitor the A&E performance.
