The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has signed ‘a ground-breaking strategic estates partnership agreement’ with Ryhurst, via which the latter will deliver ‘a wideranging estates strategy that supports the Trust in the delivery of excellent patient care’.
Ryhurst, a specialist in ‘land and asset solutions’ for the health and social care markets, says the Trust is the first non-Foundation Trust to enter a ‘50:50 joint venture’ partnership with a private sector partner.
The Trust has now legally formed the ‘Wight Life Partnership LLP’, with NHS Trust Development Authority backing, signifying the start of the 15-year agreement, with an option to extend for a further five. Ryhurst and the Trust will work ‘in partnership’ to undertake a comprehensive review of the estate across all Trust sites, ‘ensuring that buildings and grounds are fully utilised, and suitable for the delivery of modern healthcare’, while ‘improving asset efficiency’, and helping identify and develop any commercial opportunities.
The Trust added: “To maximise this new partnership’s benefits, it is anticipated that Wight Life Partnership will also work very closely with our other health and social care system partners on the Isle of Wight. This will help align estate strategies to enable the joint Island health and social care vision, ‘Person-centred, coordinated health and social care’, to become a reality.
Karen Baker, Isle of Wight NHS Trust CEO (pictured with Ryhurst MD, Stephen Collinson), said: “As an organisation committed to innovative ways of working, we are excited to work with Ryhurst to make sure we can reinvest for the future.
“Working with partners across health and social care, in order to provide excellent patient care, it is important to have up-to-date, state-of-the-art facilities.
“Our clinical strategy outlines how more care will be provided in local communities and patient homes, with specialised services centralised on the St. Mary’s Hospital site. By working in partnership, we will look to make the best use of our estate to support high quality clinical services that meet the needs of the Island communities we serve.”
Stephen Collinson added: “Our innovative partnership model continues to bring real value to deliver long-term, strategic benefits for NHS estates. We are delighted to be working with Isle of Wight NHS Trust, marking the start of a journey that will draw on both our capabilities to add real value to the Trust’s estate for the benefit of staff and patients.”
England’s only integrated acute, community, mental health, and ambulance healthcare provider, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust serves an isolated offshore population of 140,000.
Image Credit: Photo courtesy of the Isle of Wight NHS Trust / Eileen Long Photography
