In November 2017 it was announced that the Trust hopes to play a pivotal role in revolutionising services for heart and lung patients, with the creation of a new global centre of excellence for care and research in partnership with King’s Health Partners (KHP)1.
Encompassing children’s and adult clinical services, academic education and research, we have a united vision to create a global powerhouse for heart and lung medicine and research in London, providing the best possible patient care and experience. The partnership presents a unique opportunity to build a world-leading clinical-academic system which will transform the lives of millions of patients on a regional, national and international level.
Individually, our Trust, along with Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London Foundation Trusts, have international reputations for excellence in research and clinical delivery. Together, working alongside the academic expertise of King’s College London and other academic partners, we can build on these strengths to form one of the largest cardiovascular and respiratory institutes in the world. At the heart of our new system will be a collaboration of specialist services around the St Thomas’ Hospital site near Westminster Bridge in London, which will bring together clinical, academic and industry expertise in a unique, world-leading hub.
By coming together we will not only bring the best of each organisation – we will also create a unique model that will help address the challenges faced by healthcare providers across the country: fragmented care between organisations; challenges in recruiting and retaining key staff; and insufficient scale to develop true expertise in sub-specialties. We believe our partnership will be an exemplar for the way health needs to be delivered in the future.
In April 2018 our boards of directors approved a feasibility study which assessed the impact the collaboration could have on treatment, research and education, and scoped out the cost and affordability. NHS England now plans to run a public consultation on our proposals in summer 2019. We look forward to continuing our work with patients and staff, our referrers, local communities and regulators, to develop our vision into a dynamic and inspirational new system for the delivery of exceptional care and research for generations to come.
We will bring together world-leading specialist skills and expertise from across healthcare, academia and industry to create globally-significant system of care that will deliver:
- Clinical services at the forefront of the 4th industrial revolution - leveraging the best advances in technology, digital innvoations and AI to deliver truly integrated patient pathways and preventative healthcare
- World leading translational research that delivers innovation from bench to bedside
- World class training and education - attracting the best of global talent.
1KHP comprises Guy's and St Thomas' NHS FT (GSTT), King's College Hospital (KCH), South London and Maudsley NHS FT (SLaM) and King's College London (KCL) University.