Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust in takeover talks

The trust which has placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission, after its report revealed too many patients were dying and faces a £33million annual debt, plans to make improvements through a new long term partnership.

Sherwood’s interim chief executive Peter Herring said: “Whilst we are already making good progress in addressing the concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission’s report, we believe we could make more rapid progress and improvements by formally combining with another NHS organisation.”

“A long term partnership will allow our hospitals to benefit from a stable leadership team and their strong working practices.

“The partnership will also improve our ability to recruit into key medical and nursing posts.

“Crucially, it will quickly improve the quality of services we provide, by giving clinical support in areas where we need it most.

“Whatever the shape of the future organisational arrangements the majority of services will continue to be provided locally from our hospitals.”

Peter Herring continued: “Each potential partner offers credible solutions for Sherwood Forest Hospitals so a rigorous selection process is underway to make sure we choose the best partner for the Trust, our patients, staff and local communities. We hope to be able to announce our preferred partner and the next steps in this process in mid-February.”

Derby Teaching Hospitals Interim Chief Executive Helen Scott-South, said: “Over the past five years we have established many partnerships with other hospitals’ across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and East Staffordshire. We are already providing some valuable support to Sherwood Forest Hospitals and we are keen to extend this to benefit staff and patients in the longer term.”

“Building on our strong track record, our excellent reputation and the ‘Good’ CQC rating Derby has achieved, we believe that we can use our expertise to help move Sherwood Forest out of special measures. We can bring the best of both organisations together by sharing good practice, as well as clinical and operational leadership, in order to provide the best patient care for our local communities.”

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has said if it takes over Sherwood Forest trust, it will remain focussed on the needs of the QMC and the City Hospital.

Chief Executive Peter Homa Said: “ We enter this exercise with the single objective of doing what is best for patients in Nottinghamshire and securing a sustainable health and social care system for the local community in the future.

“We of course remain very mindful that any support provided to Sherwood Forest in the short to medium term must be balanced exquisitely with our requirement to retain a clear focus on delivering our own ambitious agenda at NUH, not least addressing our significant financial challenges and sustaining our strong performance (and in some cases improving) across the full range of patient safety, experience and access standards.”