Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, and the James Paget University Hospital have joined together in a group model called the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group, however, each of the hospitals will continue to operate under their own names.

Streamlined decision making combined with locally focused delivery of care will enhance hospital experience and outcomes for patients across Norfolk and Waveney.

Group models across the NHS vary according to the needs of the organisations within them. In the case of the three Norfolk acutes there will be a single Chair and a single Chief Executive and a single set of Executive and Non-Executive Directors across the three. Each hospital will have an Executive Managing Director who will be a full member of the Group Board.

The case for establishing a Group Model can be read in full.

The group model helps create the opportunity to:

• Deliver a consistent best practice model of urgent and emergency care with a particular focus on frailty.
• Implement safe and sustainable care models.
• Level up outcomes and access by optimising elective care pathways.
• Tackle some of the underlying financial challenges facing the hospitals.
• Co-ordinate our priorities around local services and provide the local hospitals with autonomy to advance work with partners in place settings.
• Deliver better outcomes for people with cancer at all stages of the pathway.
• Ensure a co-ordinated approach to the development of the two new hospitals in Kings’ Lynn and Gorleston.
• Make the most effective use of workforce capacity.
• Improve staff offer and thus retention.
• Enhance research, training, and innovation.
• Leverage better negotiation, purchasing and investment power.
• Ensure an aligned approach to strategy, transformation, and planning functions.