Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust runs the Royal United Hospital (RUH), a major acute-care hospital in Bath, England. The trust also runs the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (since 2015) and Sulis Hospital at Peasedown St John (since 2021). History In 2011, the RUH applied to become authorised as an NHS foundation trust from late Spring 2012, however this was postponed after issues were raised by the Care Quality Commission about aspects of patient care. The process was restarted in 2014. It was authorised as a Foundation Trust in October 2014. The trust's chief executive is Cara Charles-Barks, who took over in September 2020 on the retirement of James Scott. RUH redevelopment In 2008, plans were revealed for a £100million redevelopment of the pre-World War II RUH North buildings, which would include an increase in single-occupancy rooms in line with Government targets. The first stage of this work was originally planned to start in 2012. In 2014, a five-year development plan, incorporating a new cancer centre, was confirmed. Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases The trust which ran the specialist Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases was taken over by the RUH Trust in 2015. In 2019 the hospital moved from its historic building in central Bath to a new building adjacent to the main RUH building at Combe Park. Sulis Hospital In 2021 the trust bought the private hospital, Circle Bath, from Circle Health. This gives the trust a separate cold elective site and will be used to increase diagnostic capacity. 30% of the capacity will still be used for private work. It is called Sulis Hospital and is at Peasedown St John, about south of the Combe Park site. It is used for high-volume and low-complexity work and more than 1,100 two-year NHS waiters were treated at Sulis in 2021/2. Private activity increased from 33% in 2019-20 to 40% in 2021-22. Performance By 2010, the rates of hospital acquired MRSA and Clostridium difficile infection were below the national average. In 2010, Dr Foster Hospital Guide reported that RUH mortality rates give no cause for concern. In 2010, Which? judged that the RUH had the best hospital car parking regime in England. It was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 3,852 full time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 3.85%. It was recommend it as a place for treatment by 75% of staff and as a place to work by 68%. The Consultant Connect service, established at the trust in July 2015, allows GPs to speak directly with a consultant to get specialist advice in real time. It is now widely used across the NHS and has meant that at least 18,500 patients have been spared an outpatient hospital visit. Maternity services Maternity services at the RUH were operated under contract, and had not been run by the Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust since