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Our FT Application

What is a Foundation Trust?

NHS Foundation Trusts remain part of the NHS but are free from central government control.  Instead, Foundation Trusts become directly accountable to their staff and local communities who can become members, or even governors.

Foundation Trusts have the freedom to decide locally how to meet the needs of their service users, and its members and governors have the chance to comment on, and provide feedback on these decisions.

Regulation

Foundation Trusts are directly accountable to their staff and local community and are authorised and monitored by Monitor, the independent regulator of Foundation Trusts.

Why is Bedford Hospital applying to become a Foundation Trust?

All NHS Trusts will eventually have to apply to become a Foundation Trust and those who do not meet the criteria to become an FT will be merged with one of the surrounding Foundation Trusts.  We believe that, by becoming a Foundation Trust now, we will be better able to meet the needs and priorities of patients, staff and the wider community.

Benefits of becoming a Foundation Trust

Becoming a Foundation Trust has many benefits for staff, patients and the wider community, including:

  • More involvement with the hospital and how it is run through the Foundation Trust membership and governor scheme;
  • The opportunity to help to influence future developments in services;
  • Greater participation in decision making around hospital services;
  • The Trust will be able to raise capital money without going through current NHS approvals processes;
  • The Trust will be able to retain financial surpluses made during a financial year to reinvest in services.

How you can support our application and get involved

Part of the process of our application to become a Foundation Trust involves signing up new members to the Trust who will have a say in how their hospital will be run. Members can be as involved as they would like whether they just want to receive a newsletter, or would like to get more involved. We currently have over 6,200 members and are looking for more people to get involved and show their support by signing up as a member for free.

You can be even more involved in how the hospital is run by running for election as a Foundation Trust governor and representing the members’ views within the hospital on the Council of Governors. To find out more about membership and the Council of Governors, please use the links on the left hand side. 

Contact Us:

You can contact the Foundation Trust Membership Office by:

Telephone: 01234 792627
Email: communications@bedfordhospital.nhs.uk
Post: Membership Office, Communications Department, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust, Kempston Road, Bedford MK42 9DJ.

Please support your local hospital, have your say, and help us to continually improve the services we offer by backing our Foundation Trust bid, and signing up as a member.

It’s Your Hospital, Have Your Say!