EKH’s hat in the ring for South London Healthcare Trust

The London trust was the first in the country to be placed in the failure regime, after ending last year with a deficit of £69m on a £459m turnover.

It runs three main hospital sites, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Greenwich, Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley and the Queen Mary Hospital in Bexley.

East Kent Hospitals is the bidder furthest away from South London’s three main clinical sites.

The £485m-turnover FT is interested in the potential for collaboration on back office functions such as payroll and HR, which it already runs on a significant scale.

HSJ understands there is also thought to be scope for looking at what specialisms East Kent could collaborate with the South London hospitals on, although the organisation is not interested in taking over the running of whole sites.