The Keogh review trusts placed into special measures by regulators are to be “buddied up” with more successful providers in a bid to drive improvements, HSJ understands.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce the new approach tomorrow, along with buddies for the 11 of the 14 Keogh review trusts that have been placed into special measures under the new single failure regime.
Mr Hunt has previously expressed an interest in adopting the “superheads” model used in education for use in the health service. He first mooted the idea in an interview with HSJ last year and in August The Daily Telegraph reported Mr Hunt was looking at creating a structure in which the best hospital chief executives either moved to turn around failing smaller hospitals or took them over.
HSJ understands it is hoped the buddying system will foster long term relationships between organisations that can provide ongoing strategic and leadership support.
This would address NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh’s observation that a common factor of the 14 trusts with persistently high mortality rates that he reviewed earlier this year was their “geographical, academic or professional isolation”.
It also fits with the Berwick review’s recommendation that safety improvement collaboratives are set up to encourage sharing of learning between trusts.
The 11 Keogh review trusts in special measures are:
- North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust
- Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Foundation Trust
- Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust
- Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals Foundation Trust
- Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust
- East Lancashire Hospitals Trust
- George Eliot Hospital Trust
- Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust
- Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust
- Medway Foundation Trust
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