§ Mr. KnapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he has reached a decision on the Royal group of hospitals' application for health and social services trust status; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HanleyI have decided to establish the Royal group of hospitals as a health and social services trust to become operational on 1 April 1993.
In making my decision I considered carefully the Royal group of hospitals' application and the comments made on it during consultation.
As a trust, the Royal group of hospitals will continue to be a regional centre of excellence with a commitment to the provision of services to its local community and to teaching and research. The trust will remain firmly within the Northern Ireland health and personal social services 50W and will continue to be financed from public funds. However, it will have new freedoms and I am confident that the trust will use these to benefit patients and improve its quality of service while giving greater job satisfaction to its employees. I am also confident that the trust will build on the existing involvement of senior professional staff in the management of the unit.
Consultation on the application revealed a number of problems which need to be resolved concerning the future of the Royal group of hospitals. In order to give time for these matters to be addressed I have decided to delay the operational date of the trust for one year. In the meantime the Eastern health and social services board will retain overall managerial responsibility for the unit. A shadow board for the trust will be appointed which will take over full responsibility for the Royal group of hospitals from April 1993.