We are delighted to announce that Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust has officially joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease.
The merger of the two NHS foundation trusts was approved by the Boards and Councils of Governors of both organisations in December 2020. It comes into effect today, 1 February 2021, seeing the creation of a newly expanded Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, with Royal Brompton and Harefield forming a new Clinical Group within the Trust.
Since 2017, Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trusts have been working together, and with colleagues across King’s Health Partners, to develop plans to transform care for adults and children with heart and lung disease. This merger is a key step towards achieving these ambitions.
To begin with, the merger will mean clinicians and teams working more closely together, building on the partnership work over the last three years, but generally providing services to the same patients and in the same places as they do now.
Subject to the necessary public consultation, children’s services will move from the Royal Brompton Hospital site to an expanded Evelina London Children’s Hospital at St Thomas’ in around five to six years’ time. Subsequently, and again subject to consultation, we hope to build a new centre for heart and lung services at St Thomas’, which will be the home to adult heart and lung services from across the new Trust and potentially other partners as well. There are no plans to move services from Harefield Hospital, but these services will be an integral part of the integration across the new trust
Professor Ian Abbs, Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, says:
“I am proud to welcome colleagues from Royal Brompton and Harefield to the Guy’s and St Thomas’ family. Together, and with our partners, we have a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients from before birth to old age, and conducting world-leading research.
“We have already demonstrated that by working together we can achieve more for our patients, not least during our current pandemic response, where partnership working has helped us care for many patients requiring the most specialist treatment.
“I am looking forward to taking the next step on our exciting shared journey, both with our new colleagues and our clinical and academic partners.”
Dr Richard Grocott-Mason, Managing Director of the new Royal Brompton and Harefield Clinical Group at Guy’s and St Thomas’ says:
“This is a hugely significant moment in the history of Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. From our earliest discussions with Guy’s and St Thomas’ we realised we had the chance to create something new and dynamic with colleagues who shared our values and appetite for innovation and transformation – vital for a specialist Trust with a strong reputation for breaking new ground in heart and lung disease treatment and research.
“Healthcare will undergo radical transformation over the next ten years and hospitals and healthcare providers will need to respond. Joining Guy’s and St Thomas’ gives us the best chance of leading and shaping the transformation of heart and lung care and research on a national and international stage.”