§ The Secretary of State for Health (Dr. John Reid)I announced on 26 July that I would support 20 National Health Service trusts in their bids to become NHS foundation trusts as part of wave 1A.
These trusts have made an application to Monitor (whose statutory name is the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts) for authorisation as NHS foundation trusts, and are setting up their new governance arrangements including recruiting members to hold elections to the board of governors. On 2 August, Monitor announced that wave 1 A applicants would be handled as two groups, with target dates for authorisation being 1 November 2004 and 1 February 2005. Details of the two groups are as follows:
1 November 2004
- Barnsley District General Hospital NHS Trust
- Burton Hospitals NHS Trust
- Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospitals NHS Trust
- Gateshead Health NHS Trust
- Harrogate Healthcare NHS Trust
- Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust
- Southend Hospital NHS Trust
103WS - South Tyneside Healthcare NHS Trust
- West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust
1 February 2005
- Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust
- Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull NHS Trust
- Birmingham Women's Healthcare NHS Trust
- East Somerset NHS Trust
- Frimley Park Hospitals NHS Trust
- Lancaster Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Liverpool Women's Hospital NHS Trust
- Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust
- Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Trust
- Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Trust
- Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust
On 26 July, I indicated that in addition to three-star rated acute and specialist trusts, mental health trusts would for the first time be invited to apply for NHS foundation trust status. We will formally invite applications for wave 2 later this autumn and outline the timetable for authorisation, which will be subject to the outcome of the review into NHS foundation trusts being undertaken by the Healthcare Commission (whose statutory name is the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection).