More NHS Foundation Trusts on the cards

Twenty
more hospitals are eligible to become NHS Foundation Trusts.

Foundation
Trusts remain fully part of the NHS, but have greater management and financial
freedoms to improve services.

The
trusts announced by health secretary John Reid can apply immediately to the
Office of the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts for authorisation.

Reid
also confirmed that the next wave of NHS Foundation Trust applications is to be
expanded to include, for the first time, three-star-rated Mental Health Trusts.

"This
marks another important step on the road to decentralisation, freeing up the
NHS from day-to-day Whitehall control and giving local patients more
power," he said.

The
Government said it is committed to ensuring that all healthcare trusts have NHS
foundation status by 2008.

The
eligible NHS trusts:

•
Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust

•
Barnsley District General Hospital NHS Trust

•
Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull NHS Trust

•
Birmingham Women’s Healthcare NHS Trust

•
Burton Hospitals NHS trust

•
Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospitals NHS trust

•
East Somerset NHS Trust

•
Frimley Park Hospitals NHS Trust

•
Gateshead Health NHS Trust

•
Harrogate Healthcare NHS Trust

•
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

•
Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Trust

•
Nottingham City hospital NHS Trust

•
Royal National Hospital For Rheumatic Diseases NHS trust

•
Southend Hospital NHS Trust

•
South Tyneside Healthcare NHS Trust

•
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust

•
The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Trust

•
West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust

•
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust

By Quentin Reade