Your University Hospitals Dorset

We are incredibly proud to welcome you to our new University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) website and to introduce your new Trust. Your dedicated Poole, Royal Bournemouth, and Christchurch hospitals, will continue to serve you and as a team of over 9,000 members of staff we are stronger together and look forward to constantly improving the healthcare we provide.

While our name and some of our ways of working may look different, we are more than just buildings, we are the same people you used to see, the same people committed to delivering the finest care. This poem is our message to you – things may be different, in more ways than one at the moment, but we are your committed local NHS.

As a merged organisation we will have a turnover of around £630m, which is similar to a hospital serving a large city. With this growth comes new opportunities and we are thrilled to be gaining university status, which will allow our research capability to grow and flourish. Both trusts entering this merger had good previous CQC ratings, with outstanding awards in one area each. This is now an opportunity to combine the outstanding elements from both to create a single outstanding organisation, with new standards of excellence and quality, at the heart of the east Dorset community.

Debbie Fleming, joint Chief Executive of UHD said: "We believe our merger will help our three hospitals to provide even better care, and develop world-class services as we become a university hospital trust working with Bournemouth University. Our new organisation will allow us to work better together to tackle Covid-19 and realise our ambitious plans for the future. Our people are most definitely our greatest asset, and we shall be doing great things together, to make the very best of our opportunities."

David Moss, joint Chairman said: "We thank all our partners, including Dorset Healthcare, Dorset County Hospital, our local councils, South Western Ambulance Service and the Dorset CCG. We look forward to continuing to work closely together as part of the Our Dorset Integrated Care System to realise the full benefits of our merger and our bright future together as University Hospitals Dorset."