Three trusts agree pathology 'hub' model expected to save £51m

North London trusts Barts Health and Homerton University Hospital, as well as south London provider Lewisham and Greenwich Trust have each now approved a full business case for the plan.

Barts’ Royal London Hospital site in Whitechapel will be the hub site, while the other hospitals will keep an “essential services laboratory”. These will run tests “necessary for addressing any of the sites urgent needs,” according to a presentation to the Homerton’s board this week.

Lewisham and Greenwich’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital will also have capacity to analyse a high volume of samples sent from GPs.

The partnership will formally begin in March 2021, once all laboratory staff have transferred to Barts Health Trust employment when a three year transition period will begin. The partnership then will run for nine years.

“Key enablers” for the transition period include “a single laboratory information system; a single governance and management framework in place prior to any test transferring; estates investments at [Royal London Hospital] and [Homerton University Hospital], and adequate equipment capacity at sites”.

The three trusts will have equal ownership of and voting rights in key decision associated with the partnership, which will be an arm’s length organisation hosted by Barts. Each partner will also have a list of “reserved matters” for issues under which they retain a right of veto on the partnership’s decisions.

“An estimated £51m of savings is expected over the course of the partnership, which will be shared across the organisations,” a statement from Barts said.

Trusts across the country have been encouraged to consolidate their pathology services by regulators.

Lewisham and Greenwich, which is situated south of the River Thames, joined the planning for the “NHS option” in April 2019 after it rejected an NHS Improvement-backed proposal for the three trusts in south east London to form a network, which involved a part-private provider.