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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
TypeNHS trust
Established22 March 1993
Hospitals
Staff8,347 (2023/24) WTE[1]
Websitewww.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is an NHS trust which was formed on 1 October 2013 and is responsible for running two acute hospitals, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and University Hospital Lewisham, in addition to community health services in Lewisham.[2]

The trust was formed by the acquisition of the acquisition of Queen Elizabeth Hospital by Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust upon the dissolution of South London Healthcare NHS Trust. Despite extensive local opposition and legal challenges in Lewisham, the merger was approved by Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt on 26 September 2013.[3]

Both hospitals continue to operate emergency departments, acute medicine services and maternity units following the High Court decision which ruled that the plan to close services at Lewisham Hospital was unlawful,[4] a judgement which was subsequently upheld in the Court of Appeal.[5]

History

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The trust was established as the Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust on 22 March 1993, and became operational on 1 April 1993.[6]

Overseas patients

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From 2015 the trust used Experian to identify overseas visitors who could be charged for NHS treatment.[7] In 2018–19 it issued bills to ineligible patients for £4.1 million, slightly down on the previous year, but collected only £528,000.[8] In September 2019 they suspended this policy[9] and the contract was cancelled in January 2020. An independent review subsequently found some of its patients were left feeling "uncomfortable, scared or unable to seek timely treatment" by this approach, although the panel had received "independent assurances" their application of the current framework was "in line" with legislative guidance.[10]

Performance

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The Trust was given an £8.5m bailout of public dividend capital by the Department of Health to cover an unexpected deficit for the financial year 2014–15.[11]

The General Medical Council put the trust on an enhanced monitoring list in February 2017 after complaints from junior doctors about "clinical supervision, serious incident reporting, trust leadership, rotas and rota management, workload, educational supervision, pastoral support and access to educational opportunities".[12]

It was inspected by the Care Quality Commission in 2014 and was rated inadequate. In 2016 it had improved and was rated ‘requires improvement’. The maternity and gynaecology department was rated as good.[13]

It planned for a year end deficit of £22.8 million for 2017-18 but by the end of July it was £12.4 million behind plan.[14] In January 2018, it had to borrow £95 million on a turnover of £539 million. It had a plan, which was not achieved, equalling 8.6% of turnover, the closure of seven wards and a reduction in the average length of stay from 8.1 to 4.7 days. Its elective procedures are outsourced,[15] orthopaedic surgery to BMI Healthcare and vascular surgery to Frontière Médicale.[16]

Choir

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The Trust's choir, the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, appeared on Gareth Malone's BBC Two competition show The Choir: Sing While You Work in 2013, where they finished second.[17] They reached Christmas singles chart number one in 2015 with their charity record "A Bridge over You", beating Justin Bieber's top-selling "Love Yourself" in the process.[18] In 2020, they recorded a version of Bieber's "Holy", with the two former rivals combining to challenge for the Christmas number one spot.[19][20] However, when the record was released on 18 December 2020 it still had a credit for Chance the Rapper, like the original version, which first entered the UK chart on 25 September 2020.[21] As the new record was seen as just a remix,[22] "Holy" ended up at Number 41 in the Christmas chart with 17,594 sales, after being classed as per the original release with no additional credit for the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir.[23][24]

They also were seen performing Joy to the World after the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day 2020.

References

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  1. ^ "Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24". Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a new Trust formed on 1 October 2013". Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  3. ^ "Greenwich and Lewisham health care trust merger plan approved". BBC News. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Jeremy Hunt's Lewisham hospital cuts plan quashed at High Court". BBC News. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Lewisham Hospital: Appeal Court overrules Jeremy Hunt". BBC News. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  6. ^ "The Lewisham Hospital National Health Service Trust (Establishment) Order 1993". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Revealed: Mass use of credit check firm to find NHS patients to charge". Health Service Journal. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Trusts missing out on tens of millions from overseas patients". Health Service Journal. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Trust abandons Experian credit checks after outcry". Health Service Journal. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  10. ^ "'Scared' patients left 'unable to seek timely treatment' by trust's charging approach". Health Service Journal. 9 July 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  11. ^ "London trust receives £8.5m bailout to cover unexpected deficit". Health Service Journal. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Teaching trusts placed on watchlist over bullying and leadership concerns". Health Service Journal. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  13. ^ "'Patients deserve better' – Hospital treating Bexley patients slammed in damning CQC report". Bexley Times. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  14. ^ "NHSI investigates trust over financial governance concerns". Health Service Journal. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  15. ^ "Trust unable to fund staff for under fire department". Health Service Journal. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  16. ^ "Deficit trust borrowing £95m to cover overspend". Health Service Journal. 4 January 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  17. ^ "The Trust Choir – Lewisham and Greenwich". lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  18. ^ "NHS Choir beat Justin Bieber to Christmas number one spot". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
  19. ^ "Justin Bieber partners with the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir for new charity version of 'Holy'". NME. 14 December 2020.
  20. ^ "NHS charity song 'Holy' out now | News".
  21. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company". OfficialCharts.com.
  22. ^ "Rules for Chart Eligibility–Singles" (PDF). Official Charts Company. January 2020.
  23. ^ "Xmas No.1". Archived from the original on 23 November 2020.
  24. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company". OfficialCharts.com.
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