Hospitals become foundation trust

There are currently 109 foundation trusts in England

Wiltshire's Great Western Hospital has been awarded foundation trust status allowing it greater financial freedom to focus on the needs of patients.

The former Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust had to meet strict criteria before the status was granted.

"It is an exciting beginning to a new future," said Lyn Hill-Tout, chief executive of the new foundation trust.

The new trust is free to concentrate on
providing services such as the proposed midwife-led birthing centre.

"We firmly believe that being a foundation trust will help us to continually improve how we deliver our patient care and shape our services to best meet the needs of the local community," said Ms Hill-Tout.

"We have reduced our waiting times for the majority of patients to 13 weeks or less, reduced waiting times for cancer patients, and our clinical teams have worked extremely hard in redesigning our clinical care," she said.

There are currently 109 NHS foundation trusts in England - and over the next couple of years all hospital trusts are expected to achieve foundation status.