Health News - Historic throat, nose, ear hospital could be closed

Published: 1st April, 2010
by TOM FOOT

HOSPITAL bosses are hammering out a deal that could lead to the closure of one of the country’s largest specialist hospitals.
The Royal Free Hospital is in talks about ending its historic association with the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (RNTNE) in Gray’s Inn Road, King’s Cross.
Board papers show the world-renowned service – which has been on the same site for 130 years – is expected to be ­transferred to the University College London Hospital (UCLH) in Bloomsbury.
The RNTNE is a key plank in a package drawn up between the two hospitals.
It includes moving pancreatic cancer, neurosurgery and emergency stroke services from Hampstead to Bloomsbury.
In a board meeting report, UCLH chief executive Sir Robert Naylor said: “On the assumption that it [the Royal Free] agrees the principle of transferring the RNTNE to UCLH, then we can be confident that the whole package of measures can be implemented.
“Once it has been approved, then we can proceed to public consultation, if this is considered necessary by the primary care trust, and to commence the transfer of staff between the two trusts.”
He added: “Specific­ally in relation to the RNTNE transfer proposal, we will need to undertake a process of due diligence to ensure that neither trust is disadvantaged without proper ­recompense.”
The Royal Free provides treatment for more than 60,000 RNTNE patients each year across three floors.
The rest of the building is used for research into baffling conditions such as tinnitus.
The NHS is facing a massive funding crisis over the next three years after Chancellor Alistair Darling asked NHS bosses to find ways of saving £4billion.
Former Royal Free chief executive Andrew Way, who quit the hospital last September, first suggested the idea of moving out of the RNTNE in April.
At the time, he said: “The RNTNE is very old and especially in terms of its surgical accommodation not what would be expected of the NHS in the 21st century.”
He recommended a revised estates strategy that included selling
the former Coppett’s Wood Hospital, Queen Mary House in Heath Street, and parts of the hospital’s car park to property developers.