North West London healthcare providers and Imperial College London explore potential for new AHSP

Imperial College London and healthcare providers in North West London today announce plans to form a new partnership to improve the health and care of the local population of 1.9 million people.

The new Academic Health Science Partnership (AHSP) is intended to bring together providers of primary, secondary, tertiary, community and mental healthcare to work with Imperial College London to pursue higher quality care for patients. The partners hope to launch the AHSP formally in April 2012.

The first partnership of its kind in North West London, it will support collaborative approaches to innovating in healthcare. With Imperial College London as an academic partner, the AHSP will present opportunities to conduct clinical trials at a large and meaningful scale and to apply research findings to benefit a greater number of patients. The AHSP could also take a leading role in training and educating healthcare professionals.

The proposal to develop the AHSP has been formulated by Professor the Lord Darzi, Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London and formerly Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health.

Lord Darzi said: “The partners involved in developing the AHSP face many common challenges but have one unifying goal: to bring the highest quality care to the people of North West London.

“By focusing on our strengths and systematically implementing what is known across the partnership about providing the best clinical care through innovation, we should achieve much more than we could apart.

“Our simple ambition is to use all of our academic and clinical expertise to improve the quality of care for our North West London population as a whole.”

Heather Lawrence, Chief Executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are delighted to be part of Lord Darzi's initiative in bringing together Imperial College with 11 NHS organisations to form an Academic Health Science Partnership in North West London.

“This is good news for the 1.9 million people who live in North West London and for staff because together we can develop innovative solutions and translate research into practice to improve the quality of healthcare and health outcomes for patients.”

The healthcare providers behind plans for the AHSP already deliver a range of world-class services, including the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental health conditions and women’s and children’s health. The AHSP would seek to use the expertise of each member to develop a programme of innovations that benefit all healthcare across North West London.

Lord Darzi has agreed to be the Chairman of the Transitional Partnership Board that will confirm the membership of the AHSP, which may include other healthcare and education partners, and determine its organisational and legal structure. The Board will include as members the Rector of Imperial College London, the Chief Executives of the Trusts which have agreed to progress plans, and a GP representative. The AHSP is expected to be launched in April 2012 as a company limited by guarantee in which members will hold equal rights.

The institutions and healthcare providers that have agreed to progress plans for the AHSP are:

• Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Ealing Hospital NHS Trust
• Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Imperial College London
• North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
• Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
• West London Mental Health Trust
• West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust