Be part of your world-renowned local hospitals Help us create an Academic Health Sciences Centre at Barts and The London hospitals

Your views on a new NHS foundation trust delivering the highest quality clinical services, teaching and research

January 2007

1Thank you for taking the time to read about our plans for becoming an NHS foundation trust.

An exciting timeThis is an exciting time for Barts and The London. Our hospitals – The Royal London, Barts and The London Chest – were recognised by the independent healthcare watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, as England’s top teaching hospitals in their annual health check ratings for 2005/06. In addition, work is well underway to build new hospitals at both The Royal London and Barts, providing world-class healthcare facilities to complement our long-standing record of clinical excellence.

A great opportunityBecoming an NHS foundation trust is another great opportunity. It will enable us to build on our strong track record of clinical, research and teaching excellence and robust financial management, at the same time as developing much closer links with the people who matter most – our patients, staff and local communities. As an NHS foundation trust, we will have far greater independence, together with our partners, to develop services at our hospitals in line with the needs of those who use them. We will be accountable via elected representatives to our members, who will be patients or their carers, members of the local community and hospital staff.

Help us to become world renownedWe want to create the best health service, research and education centre in the country and we believe that becoming an NHS foundation trust with a strong academic focus will help us to do this. Working jointly with our main academic partner – Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry – we want to become an organisation that will be recognised for clinical, research and educational excellence throughout the world. Our vision is to be an Academic Health Sciences Centre where the very best patient care is provided in an environment where our doctors, dentists and nurses receive the highest standards of training, and where world-class clinical research supports the most up-to-date and relevant patient care for our communities.

An introduction to our public consultation

Be part of our future This is a real opportunity for us to engage more effectively with our patients, staff, local communities and partner organisations, and for you to make a genuine contribution to our future. As a member of our foundation trust, you will receive regular updates on the work of the hospitals and our academic partners. You will also receive information on how to improve your health, in line with your interests, and we will seek your views on proposed developments.

Tell us what you thinkYour views are important to us in developing our application for NHS foundation trust status and realising our vision of becoming an Academic Health Sciences Centre. Our proposals are set out in this document and we have provided prompter questions throughout, asking for your opinion on specific issues. These questions are also listed on the pull-out form in the middle of this document, which we hope you will complete and return to us by Friday 13 April 2007 – you do not need a stamp to do this. You can also complete and submit the form electronically on our website at www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft. As well as seeking your views through this document, we hope to meet in the coming weeks with a wide range of individuals and groups to discuss our plans. At the end of the public consultation, after considering all responses, we will make a formal application to the Department of Health to become an NHS foundation trust.

We look forward to receiving your comments and to welcoming many of you as members of the new Barts and The London NHS foundation trust.

John Goulston, Interim Chief Executive

John Ashworth, Chairman

Contents

An introduction to Barts and The London 2 Why become afoundation trust? 6 The way ahead – our plans for the future 8

Join us – becoming a member 12 Why become a member? Membership constituencies Barts and The London Members’ Council Board of Directors

What happens next? 20

2 3Who we are – England’s top teaching hospitalsBarts and The London NHS Trust is one of the largest acute teaching hospital trusts in England, with an annual turnover of around £500 million and more than 8,000 staff, including some of Britain’s leading specialists. Our hospitals are St Bartholomew’s (Barts) in the City of London (Britain’s oldest hospital – founded in 1123), The Royal London in Whitechapel (founded in 1740) and The London Chest in Bethnal Green (founded in 1848). As well as being the local hospital for Tower Hamlets and the City, we provide high quality specialist care for north east London and Essex, and are a regional and national clinical centre for specialist services – with a clear focus on education and research. Our extensive range of general and specialist hospital care includes leading centres for cancer, heart disease, dentistry, intestinal problems, neurology, pathology, trauma and emergency care. We want to ensure all of these elements are strengthened further by establishing a foundation trust with a strong academic focus to ensure the very best patient care with the most up-to-date treatments. We are now building brand new hospitals at both The Royal London and Barts to ensure that our future facilities match our long-standing clinical excellence. The £1 billion investment in our new hospitals programme – the largest of its kind in the UK – will create a Cancer and Cardiac Centre of Excellence at Barts, while clinical services at The Royal London,

An introduction to Barts and The London

including London’s leading trauma centre and one of the largest children’s hospitals in the UK, will be brought together in landmark new buildings. Complementing this, our main academic partner, Queen Mary, University of London has invested more than £100 million in new academic facilities at both The Royal London and Barts.

Where we’ve come from – outstanding contribution to modern medicine through teaching and researchOur leading-edge research builds on a long tradition of clinical and academic excellence. The history of modern medicine can be traced through the pioneering work of our alumni. By pushing forward research frontiers, we ensure that our patients receive some of the most advanced care available and benefit quickly from scientific breakthroughs. By becoming an NHS foundation trust and creating an Academic Health Sciences Centre, Barts

and The London will strengthen links with our main academic partners so that we can go on delivering excellent clinical services, research and teaching.

In October 2006, the Healthcare Commission rated us as the best teaching hospitals in England for the quality of our clinical services. In addition, we have one of Britain’s best records for clinical outcomes and financial performance.

Our annual report and clinical strategy have more details about Barts and The London. For a copy, contact the Communications Team on tel 020 7480 4876, email ft@bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk or visit www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk

4 5Who we care for – the two million people of east LondonOur specialist services provide care for patients from throughout the UK, although most of our 767,000 annual attendances are by patients living locally in Tower Hamlets and the neighbouring boroughs. We cover one of Europe’s most diverse communities – from the wealthy financial districts of the City and Canary Wharf to some of Britain’s most disadvantaged areas. Over the next decade we will see our patient population grow significantly through the impact of the Thames Gateway expansion and the 2012 Olympics.

What we do – bringing excellence to lifeOur mission is to give patients the best possible care so that they can live better, fuller, longer lives. We aim to achieve national and international recognition for our clinical services, research and teaching. Along with our academic partners, we are committed to:• Ensuring the best healthcare delivery

to and clinical outcomes for our communities

• Training all our staff to the highest professional standards

• Creating and disseminating new knowledge to improve health

• Creating a nationally and internationally renowned centre of clinical and research excellence and leadership that is a magnet for investment and recruitment

Beyond health care, we make a major contribution to economic, environmental and social development in east London. We are one of the largest local employers, and our £1 billion new hospitals development is critical to the regeneration of the area.

How we do it – Pathfinder clinical strategyWe achieve our mission through the framework of our Pathfinder clinical strategy, which focuses on improving clinical quality, the patient experience, education, research and service efficiency. In particular, Pathfinder aims to enhance Barts and The London’s role in providing leading-edge and innovative services to our patients and ensuring continuing value as a centre for education and research. We are committed to:• Working with our academic partners to

ensure our innovative and leading-edge services are underpinned by fundamental research

• Instigating translational research programmes to ensure fundamental research is reflected in clinical practice

• Extending our influence, both across London and nationally, on clinical, academic and research agendas

Pages 8 to 10 describe some of our plans for the future.

Question 1: Do you support our vision for excellence in clinical services, teaching and research, as outlined above?

An introduction to Barts and The London

Sarbjit Pandit received life-saving treatment at The Royal

London Hospital in October 2004 – as well as treating Sarbjit

for a critical brain haemorrhage, our clinicians performed an

emergency caesarean section to save her baby’s life

6 7The Department of Health is committed to all NHS hospital services being provided by foundation trusts. Our proposals have been developed to ensure that we can take full advantage of the opportunities offered by foundation status to benefit our patients, staff and local communities. Foundation trusts remain fully part of the NHS and continue to treat patients according to NHS quality standards and

principles – free care at the point of delivery, based on need, not the ability to pay. But, rather than being controlled by the Department of Health, foundation trusts are accountable to their local communities. Our proposed governance arrangements – how we plan to operate as a foundation trust with a strong academic focus – are described on pages 12 to 18 of this document.

Why become a foundation trust?

✔ More freedom to innovate and develop services at our hospitals in line with the needs and preferences of those who use them. This will improve patients’ experiences of our services. Continued close working with local GPs and referring hospital consultants and our main partner organisations will be crucial to this.

✔ Greater local ownership and involvement for patients, staff and local communities, rather than control from the Department of Health. Barts and The London has been at the forefront of promoting patient and public involvement in recent years and foundation trust status will enable us to enhance this. Our new Members’ Council (see page 16) will be responsible for representing the interests of our local communities, patients and carers, staff and partner organisations in the management and stewardship of the NHS foundation trust, and will be able to influence decisions about spending and service developments.

✔ New financial freedoms to borrow money and retain any surplus we make to invest in new services, based on patient needs.

✔ A major focus on academic medicine through the creation of an Academic Health Sciences Centre, in partnership with Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, will allow us to drive innovation and ensure that our services, research and teaching are fully aligned for maximum impact. We will offer clinical and academic leadership to the NHS in east London.

✔ A major focus on education – the very best in patient care

needs our staff to be trained to the highest standards. Setting up an Academic Health Sciences Centre will allow us to further improve the education of our doctors, nurses and other staff for the benefit of the wider community.

Becoming an NHS foundation trust – main benefits

Creating an Academic Health Sciences Centre

will help to ensure that our patients are the first

to benefit from ground-breaking research and

new treatments

8 9Our strategic framework for delivering excellence in everything we do is set out in our Pathfinder clinical strategy, which is being taken forward over the next three years through five main objectives to reflect both our own evolving priorities and national developments. The objectives focus on improving clinical quality, the patient experience and service efficiency, as well as the culture, systems and partnerships that will support this ambition. The objectives are set out below, along with the supporting targets that will help us deliver them.

Our priorities for the next three years

Treat our patients on time, every time, and in the most appropriate settingBeing able to access our care without waiting long is important to our patients, so continuing to improve our performance against government targets and our own rigorous standards remains a key focus.• Ensure routine delivery of existing access

times and ensure all patients are treated within 18 weeks by December 2008

• Care for patients in the most appropriate settings in partnership with health and social care partners

• Deliver the benefits of the new hospitals programme and service development investments and redesigns

Be the healthcare provider of choice for our catchment populationUnder patient choice, our continued success relies on our being hospitals of choice for patients and their advisers. The quality of clinical outcomes – on which Barts and The London has an excellent track record – is crucial.• Build our reputation as one of the

top secondary and tertiary healthcare providers of choice for patients and referrers in London and south east England

• Ensure that the patient experience and environment improve continuously and that we are responsive to individual patients

• Become a world-class Academic Health Sciences Centre, developing partnerships and securing opportunities for the Trust’s business

Achieve the best value from our investments and resourcesBarts and The London has sustained one of the strongest financial positions among NHS trusts over the past six years. Our Best Value programme has delivered £26 million of savings for 2006/07, ensuring that we can combine continued financial stability with enhanced clinical quality. At the same time, unprecedented capital investment promises world-class new hospital facilities to match the quality of our clinical services. We want to:• Have the most efficient hospitals in

Europe, minimising waste and improving the value we get from our budget at the same time as delivering the best outcomes for our patients

• Deliver and implement the technology to underpin our objectives

• Deliver the new hospitals programme on time, within budget and to the future requirements of staff and patients

The way ahead – our plans for the future

Current achievements Building work underway on Britain’s biggest new hospitals development almost nine out of ten patients say they would recommend our hospitals £5 million investment in advanced digital imaging, ending traditional film new £800,000 64-slice state-of-the-art CT scanner Britain’s biggest heart attack centre open suspected cancer patients seen in two weeks choice of appointment time for all UK’s first dedicated trauma service Tower Hamlets-wide long-term conditions strategy.

The £800,000 state-of-the-art 64-slice CT

scanner in A&E at The Royal London is one of

the first in the country, providing a fast and

comprehensive service to patients

10 Develop an efficient, skilled and adaptable workforceThe skills and commitment of our staff are at the heart of our ability to deliver excellence. We have already achieved major successes, including being one of the first hospital trusts to be awarded Improving Working Lives Practice Plus status. To meet the challenges ahead, we need to continue to invest in our workforce by providing training, leadership and development opportunities at all levels as part of a comprehensive human resources strategy.• Recruit, retain and develop staff who are

skilled and effective in delivering a high quality service to patients

• Develop existing and potential leaders and teams to deliver our strategy of providing excellent services to patients and in everything we do

• Improve the way we work to enhance efficiency and the patient experience

Achieve excellence in healthcare delivery with a focus on safety, research and innovationBuilding on an excellent safety record, Barts and The London is committed to becoming the safest trust in our peer group and a leader in clinical, teaching and research practice, supported by excellent systems.• Align clinical services, research and

education to deliver excellence in all these areas, including the establishment of a number of clinical academic units for internationally recognised leading-edge services

• Ensure demonstrable improvements in patient care and outcomes supported by a proactive safety culture and robust systems

• Build on our position as a high quality provider of pre- and post-registration healthcare education and training

Question 2: do you agree with our priorities for the next three years?

The way ahead – our plans for the future

Current achievementsFull range of specialist services national leader in translating cancer research into clinical practice ground breaking treatment for heart disease one of the best NHS records in medicines management continued low rates of MRSA more job opportunities for local people, contributing to east London’s regeneration named as one of the top nursing employers by Nursing Times magazine increased training opportunities recruitment of several internationally recognised research and clinical service leaders. B

usiness Reply

Licence Number

RRHG-HJXK-YSLG

Director of Corporate Services

Barts and The London Trust Office

Ian Walker

The Royal London Hospital

Whitechapel Road

London

E1 1BB

We would welcome your comments on anything in this consultation document. We would especially like your views on the following questions:

What do you think?

1. Do you support our vision for excellence in clinical services, teaching and research?

2. Do you agree with our priorities for the next three years?

3. Do you agree with a minimum age of 16 years for all members?

4. Do you agree with the proposed public constituencies?

5. Do you agree that there should be a separate constituency for patients and their carers?

6. Do you agree that Barts and The London staff should automatically be made members of the foundation trust with the option to opt out?

7. Do you agree with the proposed breakdown of the staff constituency?

8. Do you agree that we should use the term Members’ Council or would you prefer the term Council of Members or Board of Governors?

9. Do you agree with the proposed make-up of the Members’ Council?

Personal details

Title (Mr, Ms, Miss, Dr etc)

First name Last name

Address

Postcode

E-mail

Are you a member of staff at Barts and The London? Yes/No

Are you a patient or carer at our hospitals? Yes/No

Becoming a member Please tick the box on the left to register your interest in becoming a member – we will contact you shortly with further details.

You do not have to answer the questions below, but it will help us understand how representative our consultation responses are if you do so.

Gender (Male/Female) Ethnic group

Date of birth

Thank you for taking the time to tell us your views.

15Please detach this form. Moisten the glue strips inside, close to form a sealed envelope and post. You do not need a stamp.

In compliance with current UK Data Protection legislation, any information you provide will be kept secure, treated confidentially and used only in respect of establishing and developing our foundation trust status and communicating with you about the Trust, membership or other related issues.

If you do not wish to receive further information, including membership information, please tick here

Bringing excellence to life

Building work is now underway to create brand new

hospitals both at The Royal London (pictured) and Barts

12 13Membership constituencies Foundation trust members must belong to one of the designated ‘constituencies’, which are chosen to ensure that everyone with an interest in our hospitals – whether as a patient or carer, a member of staff or a resident of our local communities – is properly represented. Members can belong to one constituency only. We propose to establish the followingconstituencies:• Five public constituencies• A patient and carer constituency• A staff constituency

We propose that all members should be at least 16 years old, but that there be no upper age limit. At the same time, we will continue to build on the success of our Young People’s Forum, which represents patients younger than 16. One of our new governors will be specifically asked to ensure that the forum’s views are represented on the Members’ Council. No one who has been dismissed from Trust employment or has been involved in an incident of violence or abuse against our staff will be allowed to become a member of the foundation trust

Question 3: do you agree with a minimum age of 16 years for all members?

Public constituenciesWe plan to establish five public constituencies covering the following local areas:• London Borough of Tower Hamlets• London Borough of Newham• London Borough of Hackney • City of London • London Borough of Islington: Barnsbury,

Bunhill, Caledonian, Canonbury, Clerkenwell, Holloway, St Mary’s and

St Peter’s electoral wards

Anyone living in these areas, who is 16 years or over, will be eligible to join the foundation trust as a public member and to elect public governors to represent them on our Members’ Council.

Question 4: do you agree with the proposed public constituencies?

Why become a member?Becoming a member of our new foundation trust provides the opportunity to support Barts and The London’s hospitals and contribute to their future development. As a member, you will be able to help and advise us on developing our services to best meet the needs of our patients, their families and the local community. You will also have the right to stand for election as a governor to our proposed Members’ Council (see page 16) or elect others to represent you. We will ensure that all members have access to information about the foundation trust, health and healthcare issues in which they have a particular interest.

Will it take up much time?Membership is free, and how engaged you are as a member is entirely up to you. You might want simply to receive an occasional newsletter, or receive more regular information about the work of our hospitals or about health issues affecting you or your family. Or you might want to play a more active role, participating in focus groups or surveys, becoming a volunteer, or standing as a governor on the Members’ Council. Being a member will not affect any treatment you may receive as a patient at any of our hospitals. We will contact people who express an initial interest in membership to find out what type of member you want to be if you decide to join us.

Join us – becoming a member

How to joinIf you would like to be a member of Barts and The London NHS foundation trust, please tick the box on the pull-out form in the middle of this document. Ticking the box now does not commit you to anything – we will contact you shortly to find out whether you still want to be involved and, if so, how. Alternatively, you can register your interest in becoming a member at any time by contacting us in one of the following ways:

Visit www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft

E-mail ft@bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk

Telephone our 24-hour answerphone service on 020 7377 7043

14 Patient and carer constituencyAs a large teaching hospital trust, we are proposing separate public and patient constituencies to ensure that our membership accurately represents both our local population who come to our hospitals for general services, and patients from further afield, who attend for specialist treatments. If you are, or have been, a patient or have cared for a patient at any of our hospitals in the past three years, you can choose to become a member of our proposed patient and carer constituency, even if you live outside the public constituencies listed on page 13. Patients who live within the proposed public constituencies can choose whether to join the patient or public constituency. Whichever you choose, you will have the same membership rights (see page 12). As a member of the patient constituency, you would be represented on the Members’ Council by governors who are also recent patients or carers, while as a member of the public constituency, your representative would be a member of a local community who may or may not be a patient or carer. As a patient member, we might also seek your views about your experiences as a patient or carer as part of our commitment to improving our services.

Staff constituency We propose that Barts and The London staff will automatically be members of the staff constituency, unless they specify that they do not want to be a member, provided that:• They have a permanent contract of

employment or a contract of at least 12 months, or • They have been continuously employed

at the Trust for 12 months or more

People who have worked with Barts and The London for at least 12 months, but who are not employed by the Trust, will also be eligible to join the staff constituency. This will include volunteers, honorary contract holders and staff working in our hospitals through an independent contractor – for example, those employed by or seconded to our new hospitals partners.

Question 6: do you agree that Barts and The London staff should automatically be made members of the foundation trust with the option to opt out?

Join us – becoming a member

Question 5: do you agree that there should be a separate constituency for patients and their carers?

The famous fountain in the historic square at

Barts, where many of our leading cancer and

cardiac services are based

16 17Proposed make-up of the Members’ Council, excluding advisers

Number of governors

Public governors – Tower Hamlets 6

elected Hackney 2

Newham 2

City of London 1

Islington – Barnsbury, Bunhill, 1

Caledonian, Canonbury, Clerkenwell,

Holloway, St Mary’s, St Peter’s electoral wards

Patient and carer 12

governors – elected

Staff governors – Medical and dental 1

elected Nursing and midwifery 2

Scientific and technical staff and allied 1

health professionals

Ancillary, administrative and other staff 2

Partner organisation Primary care trusts (at least one of which will 2

governors – appointed be from Tower Hamlets PCT)

London Borough of Tower Hamlets 1

City of London 1

Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s 2

School of Medicine and Dentistry

Trust and Medical School Joint Research Office 1

Trust and Medical School Joint Education Office 1

National research and patient organisations 6

St Bartholomew’s School of Nursing 1

and Midwifery

St Joseph’s Hospice 1

East London Business Alliance 1

Total 47

Join us – becoming a member

We propose to divide the staff constituency into four sub-categories to ensure that different staff groups are properly represented:• Medical and dental staff• Nursing and midwifery staff• Scientific and technical staff and allied

health professionals• Ancillary, administrative and other staff

Question 7: do you agree with the proposed breakdown of the staff constituency?

Barts and The London Members’ CouncilWe propose to call our representative body the Members’ Council – this body is sometimes referred to as the Board of Governors. The Members’ Council will comprise elected and appointed governors whose role is to represent the interests of foundation trust members by providing a direct link between the hospitals and the community.

Question 8: do you agree that we should use the term Members’ Council or would you prefer the term Council of Members or Board of Governors?

The Members’ Council will work closely with Barts and The London’s Board of Directors to develop our hospitals’ services and strategic direction. Training and education will be available for governors, to ensure they are supported in their new role.

We propose to establish a Members’ Council with 47 governors in one of two categories:• Those elected by the members of our

proposed constituencies – governors representing the public and patient and carer constituencies must together form a majority.

• Governors appointed by a range of partner organisations – see the table opposite. These organisations are being suggested to ensure that the Members’ Council benefits from a wide range of expertise and knowledge from the health and social care, local authority, business and voluntary sectors. As an Academic Health Sciences Centre, our focus on academic medicine will be strengthened through the presence of national research and patient organisations on our Members’ Council.

Main responsibilities of the Members’ Council• Provides views and advice to the Board

of Directors on the strategy and plans of the foundation trust, but cannot veto their decisions

• Provides a direct link between the hospitals and their communities and represents the interests of members of the foundation trust

• Appoints the chair and non executive directors

• Appoints the auditor of the foundation trust • Approves the appointment of the

foundation trust’s chief executive• Receives the annual report and accounts

18 A foundation trust can also appoint advisers to its Members’ Council. Although these advisers are not designated as governors and will have no voting rights, they will enhance the skills of the council, widen its pool of knowledge and experience, and improve its diversity. We propose to invite certain organisations to nominate an adviser to the Members’ Council, including: • Barts and The London Patient and Public

Involvement Forum• Capital Hospitals Ltd – our new hospitals

partners• St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London

Charitable Foundation

Question 9: do you agree with the proposed make-up of the Members’ Council?

Board of DirectorsAs a foundation trust, we will have a Board of Directors, comprising executives and non executives, which will be responsible for the day-to-day management of our hospitals. The foundation trust chair will chair both the Board of Directors and the Members’ Council so will play an important role in ensuring effective communication between the two groups. Details of the composition of the Board of Directors will be provided in the constitution of the new foundation trust. The chair and non executive directors are appointed by the Members’ Council, which also approves the appointment of the chief executive. The chief executive and the non executives appoint the executive directors. In accordance with legislation, transitional arrangements will apply for current directors of the Trust to form the Board of Directors of the foundation trust so that there is no disruption to the effective operation of the hospitals.

Join us – becoming a member

As well as offering high quality clinical care, we aim

to provide a more comfortable hospital experience

for our patients, for example through our music on

the wards programme

Barts and The London’s hospitals provide care for

one of Europe’s most diverse communities – from

the wealthy financial districts of the City and Canary

Wharf to some of Britain’s most disadvantaged areas

(Photograph courtesy of the City of London)

20 21Tell us what you thinkAs an NHS foundation trust with Academic Health Sciences Centre status, Barts and The London will be directly accountable to you – our patients, staff and local communities – so your views on how we plan to establish this new organisation are vital. Please take a few moments to complete the pull-out form in the middle of this document and send it back to us – there’s a freepost number on the back of the form, so it won’t cost you anything. If you prefer, the form is also available online at our website – www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft

Please return your views by Friday 13 April 2007.

Want to know more?• Public meetings will be held as follows:

Thursday 1 March, 6-7.30pm, Seminar Room, West Wing, Barts Hospital, EC1A

and Monday 5 March, 6-7.30pm, Toynbee Hall lecture hall, 28

Commercial Street, E1 • We plan to attend a series of meetings

held by the local community and voluntary groups and forums during February and March 2007

• Visit our website at www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft • E-mail us with your comments or

questions to ft@bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk • Telephone our 24-hour answerphone

service on 020 7377 7043 – leave us a message and someone will call you back

Our next stepsOur public consultation ends on Friday 13 April 2007. We will carefully review all the comments we receive and reflect these in our formal application to the Department of Health at the end of April. At the same time, we will publish a summary of responses to the consultation and explain how we have taken them into account in our application. After that, both the Department of Health and Monitor (the independent regulator for foundation trusts) will review and make a decision on our application. This means that Barts and The London could become an NHS foundation trust from autumn 2007.

More copies of our consultation documentFor more copies of this document, please e-mail ft@bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk or call 020 7377 7043 (24-hour answerphone). You can also download further copies from the website at www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft.

What happens next?

The £58 million new Pathology and Pharmacy building

at The Royal London has consolidated pathology

services and improved efficiency, giving us the

capacity to provide services for patients across a much

wider area in north east London and further afield

(Photograph: Peter Cook)

If you would like help interpreting this document, please call the Health Advocacy Administrator on 020 7377 7280.

To receive this document in large print or audio (English and Bengali/Sylheti) please call the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 020 7943 1335.

www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/ft