Separate organisations

The University of Oxford is not merging with the city’s hospitals. The University will not suddenly be involved in the running of patient services in Oxford.

It is two NHS trusts in Oxford that have been given approval to merge by the Secretary of State for Health. The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the John Radcliffe and the Churchill hospital in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, will now join with the NHS Trust which runs the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington. A single integrated NHS trust will now run all four hospitals.

It is true that the single NHS trust, which came into being this week, will be named Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. But that is simply to reflect the merged Trust’s ongoing close working relationship and strong ties with the university.

Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust will remain two separate organisations.

The University of Oxford has recently been named as the best in the world for medical sciences. Carrying out world-class medical research needs the involvement of patients in studies aimed at improving treatments and developing new therapies for the future. And patients locally benefit from having their treatments grounded in the latest research provided by leading clinicians in their field. The university and the hospitals are therefore determined to make sure our separate organisations are very much aligned to deliver the best in research, teaching and patient care.

To that end we have set up a joint working agreement between the newly merged trust and the university to formalise this relationship.

It’s an exciting step that should lead to many benefits. But it’s not the same thing as a merger.

Professor Alastair Buchan, Head of Medical Sciences, University of Oxford