Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

History

The trust was established as the Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals NHS Trust on 4 November 1992, and became operational on 1 April 1993.

Development

In 2008 the trust established a subsidiary company, Healthcare Facilities Management Services Ltd, to run two new health centres in Bracknell and Reading. The intention was to achieve VAT benefits, as well as pay bill savings, by recruiting new staff on less expensive non-NHS contracts. VAT benefits arise because NHS trusts can only claim VAT back on a small subset of goods and services they buy. The Value Added Tax Act 1994 provides a mechanism through which NHS trusts can qualify for refunds on contracted out services.

The trust's plans to build a pre-operative assessment block at the Reading hospital site were approved by Reading Borough Council in March 2015, although councillors complained that car parking at the site was "abominably managed".

In May 2020, the trust made an agreement with Babylon Health to use their 'Ask A&E' triage tool for a year. A longer-term partnership is under consideration.

In August 2020, Reading’s Royal Berkshire Hospital piloted an Emergency Department for elderly and frail people.

Key people

The trust's chief executive is Steve McManus, in post since January 2017. He began his NHS career as a registered nurse. In August 2020, McManus was seconded to the NHS Test and Trace programme.

Performance

The Trust established a Hospital at Home service in 2015. Suitable patients are taken home, where a nurse will agree a care plan tailored to their condition. The average length of "stay" on the home care scheme between three and four days for each patient. It was anticipated that up to 1,600 people in West Berkshire each year would use the scheme.

In the End of Life Care Audit – Dying in Hospital carried out by the Royal College of Physicians in 2016, the Trust did well, with scores between 82% and 96% across the five indicators, while the national average was between 56% and 84%.

In January 2020, the Trust was found to fail meeting its performance of the last five years in providing A&E services to patients, with thousands of patients having to wait for more than four hours to be seen in A&E.

References

References

1. "Annual Report and Accounts 2021 to 2022".
2. "The Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals National Health Service Trust (Establishment) Order 1992".
3. (14 February 2017). "In full: Trusts with staff transfer plans". Health Service Journal.
4. (20 March 2015). "Plans approved for pre-op ward at Royal Berkshire Hospital despite parking being dubbed 'an abomination'". Local Berkshire.
5. (14 May 2020). "Third NHS trust partners with Babylon for patient triage tool". Health Service Journal.
6. "Older people to get dedicated area in A&E {{!}} Healthwatch Reading".
7. (January 2017). "Royal Berks welcomes Steve McManus as new CEO".
8. Serle, Jack. (8 November 2020). "Director of beleaguered Test and Trace replaced by trust CEO".
9. (14 June 2015). "Hospital at Home scheme to go live by September". Newbury Today.
10. (19 April 2016). "Royal Berkshire Hospital end of life care scores highly in report". Get Reading.
11. "A&E performance hits five-year low at Royal Berkshire Trust".
12. (2020-01-11). "Statistics expose worrying A&E waiting times at the Royal Berks".