King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust agrees action to improve services and finances

2 Apr 2015 09:33 AM

The trust will take steps to reduce waiting times for patients and improve its financial position, following an investigation by Monitor.

The regulator carried out an investigation at King’s in March 2015 after the trust was unable to resolve long-standing problems at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH), which it took over in October 2013. Although Monitor recognises that King’s has made progress in improving services at the PRUH, this has not been sufficient, as it has become clear the challenge is greater than initially anticipated.

Following the investigation, Monitor has agreed with King’s that the trust will:

• develop and implement an effective short-term recovery plan to deliver the required improvements at the PRUH that King’s planned to make when it took over the hospital
• develop and implement a longer-term plan by working closely with other national and local health care organisations (including NHS England and local commissioners) to ensure patient services are improved, and also provided in a sustainable way for the future

We will closely monitor the trust’s progress in making the required improvements and will take further action if required.