Royal Free London and North Middlesex hospital trusts to merge by new year

Royal Free London (RFL) NHS Foundation Trust is set to merge with North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust by the end of this year.

At a meeting of the health and adult social care scrutiny committee on Monday, RFL CEO Pete Landstrom said the case to combine both trusts had been completed in July and put to NHS England for final approval.

“We believe the merger will be very helpful in progressing and addressing the challenges we have as a local population and to ensure we deliver the best possible and equitable care,” he said.

Subject to NHS England’s approval in the autumn, the trusts hope to merge formally by 1 January 2025, Landstrom said.

Hopes are riding on the merger delivering vital benefits to both hospitals, including reduced waiting times, new treatments and the sharing of medical research.

RFL and North Middlesex have collaborated for many years, first as clinical partners in 2017 and then as formal partners in 2021.

In January, they announced they were exploring the possibility of a merger.

Committee member Cllr Anna Burrage pressed Landstrom on how the merger would help improve both trusts in light of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports on both last year.

In 2023, the CQC gave both trusts “requires improvement” ratings based on safety, responsiveness and leadership.

“Sometimes doing a merger like this is a distraction from actually getting on with the job that needs to be done, which is an improvement of service and care provision,” Burrage said.

She also asked if there were future plans for further integrations of other trusts.

Landstrom acknowledged the concern but said bosses were focused on patient care, improvement and quality services.

“One of the biggest risks of anything like this is, absolutely, that it becomes a distraction.

“The way that we’re set up means with a CEO and local executive team at each hospital means that there will be maintained focus on the delivery and improvement of core services.

“My role is to ensure we are helping, supporting, sharing learning, making the best use of our resources and expertise, but really empowering those local teams to focus and improve their services,” he said.

He confirmed there were no plans to integrate other bodies into the Royal Free Group, and stressed the priority of local presence and representation.

“The most important thing is that local identity, and local services are strengthened and not weakened by coming together,” he said.