Good Hope Hospital is a medium-sized acute district general hospital with 550 beds. The hospital serves North Birmingham, including Sutton Coldfield, and a large part of south east Staffordshire, including Burntwood, Lichfield and Tamworth. The catchment population is about 450,000. Good Hope Hospital has been a self-governing Trust for 10 years.

We employ approximately 2,600 (whole time equivalent) staff and for 2005/6 have a budget of approximately £108 million.

In August 2003, the Trust Board entered a franchise agreement for the hospital to be managed in partnership with a private organisation called Secta. The Trust is now seeking a mutually agreed ending of the contract.

We have now entered a partnership agreement with Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust to provide interim management support. As part of the agreement, a plan is being put together explaining options for making Good Hope Hospital a foundation trust by 2008, in line with national policy.

Our new Treatment Centre is being opened in phases during 2005 and 2006. The £17 million facility will host most of the hospital’s outpatient services and will include an endoscopy suite and a full range of integrated diagnostic services. There are also plans for two day-case theatres. The centre is designed to meet the latest requirements for providing patient-centred care.

The hospital has an accident and emergency department. Specialties on site include acute and general medicine, cardiology, elderly care and stroke, paediatrics, respiratory medicine, diabetes, obstetrics and gynaecology, maternity services, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, colorectal and upper GI surgery, urology and vascular surgery.

Visiting consultants provide a range of other services, including neurology, dermatology, plastic surgery, ENT, oncology and rheumatology.

Good Hope consultants provide outpatient, day case surgery and inpatient services to community hospitals in Lichfield, Hammerwich and Tamworth.

There is a six-bed intensive therapy unit, a six-bed high dependency unit, a dedicated coronary care unit and cardio-vascular angiography suite and an emergency assessment unit.

Support services include radiology, pathology, musculo-skeletal therapy, occupational therapy and dietetics.

The hospital has achieved external recognition for its clinical services in a number of areas – and is currently a national demonstration site for cancer waiting times.

We also have some of the shortest outpatient and inpatient waiting times in the country and in 2004/05 performed above the national average against the four-hour wait target for accident and emergency patients.

History