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Support for Newcastle Hospitals

As part of our drive to work more closely with other foundation trusts in the Great North Care Alliance, our board of directors have agreed several temporary measures to support our partners at Newcastle Hospitals.

One of our current non-executive directors will be supporting the Newcastle Hospitals board of directors following a number of departures. Bernie McCardle will chair the People Committee until Newcastle can make new, permanent appointments in the next few months. He will continue in his current Northumbria role during this time. He is joined by a colleague from Gateshead who will chair the Quality Committee as a non-executive director. Other non-executives from Northumbria may also be supporting the Newcastle board if required in the future.

At the same time, the current Northumbria Healthcare chair, Sir Paul Ennals CBE, will be appointed as interim joint chair of both trusts at the AGM in July. This will also be a temporary measure until the substantive appointment of a permanent joint chair later this year. It is anticipated that a formal recruitment process will take place in autumn/winter 2024.

It’s important to say this will not change the organisational independence of either trust, but we hope by helping support our neighbours in Newcastle, we can ensure patients right across the region can get the best possible care. This move is reflective of the ambition of local health providers to work more closely as an alliance, which we believe has huge potential to deliver significant benefits to our patients and the staff within our own organisations and in the wider North East and North Cumbria.