{"id":14302,"date":"2025-07-22T01:36:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14302\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T01:36:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:36:22","slug":"bristol-nhs-issues-update-on-hospital-supertrust-as-merger-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14302\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol NHS issues update on hospital supertrust as merger confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It aims to slash wait times and deliver better care to 1.5 million people<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_escenic-10.jpg\" alt=\"The chief executive of both the North Bristol NHS Trust and the UHBW NHS Foundation Trust, Maria Kane, outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>The chief executive of both the North Bristol NHS Trust and the UHBW NHS Foundation Trust, Maria Kane, (inset) and the Bristol Royal Infirmary(Image: Bristol Post)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Two Bristol NHS trusts said they are making &#8220;great progress&#8221; on an &#8220;exciting&#8221; agreement to merge. North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/nhs\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NHS<\/a> Foundation Trust (UHBW) have agreed to pursue a merger to become a single organisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The partnership, first proposed in December 2023, is designed to address common challenges, strengthen collaboration and improve patient outcomes for over 1.5 million people across Bristol, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/north-somerset\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"North SomersetLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Somerset<\/a>, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/south-gloucestershire\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"South GloucestershireLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Gloucestershire<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">However, bosses have cautioned that there are still &#8220;barriers to overcome and complexities to work around&#8221; as they work towards becoming one organisation. It said a &#8220;significant milestone&#8221; would see the move to a single board for both organisations \u2013 a process that is currently underway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Clinical teams are already exploring how to operate with single managed services across the two trusts. The Bristol NHS Group partners together employ over 28,000 healthcare professionals across Bristol, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/north-somerset\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Somerset<\/a> and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/south-gloucestershire\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Gloucestershire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">North Bristol currently runs sites including <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/southmead\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Southmead<\/a> Hospital, while UHBW runs the BRI, St Michael&#8217;s, Bristol Children&#8217;s Hospital, Weston Hospital and more. Maria Kane, Bristol NHS Group chief executive, said: \u201cOur Boards\u2019 decision to pursue a future merger between our two high-performing Trusts is a natural next step for our group and an exciting development for the future of healthcare in BNSSG and the wider region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThis move is in direct response to strong clinical feedback, operational lessons learned, and the priorities set out in the Government&#8217;s 10-Year Plan for the NHS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWe believe we can go further, faster, in delivering these benefits by becoming a single organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Ingrid Barker, group chair said: \u201cOur aim as a group is to deliver even better care by reducing duplication, investing in frontline services, and strengthening integration across our hospitals and communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;We are making great progress but there are still barriers to overcome and complexities to work around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cBy working together as one team we firmly believe we will be able to do more than ever for the people and communities we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It aims to slash wait times and deliver better care to 1.5 million peopleThe chief executive of both&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,104,9549,9550,9551,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-14302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-north-bristol-nhs-trust","12":"tag-north-somerset","13":"tag-south-gloucestershire","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}