NHS Trust 783106 205893157 2008-04-15T22:32:05Z 82.11.221.164 seperated due to devolution, England now has a seperate NHS system to Wales, based of course on the same Act '''National Health Service Trusts''' (NHS Trusts) provide many services of the [[National Health Service]] in [[England]] and [[Wales]]. They are not [[Trusts|trusts]] in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a [[board of directors|board]] consisting of [[executive director|executive]] and [[non-executive director]]s, and is [[chairman|chaired]] by a non-executive director. Non-executive directors are recruited by open advertisement. There are five major types of Trusts carrying out direct services: * [[NHS Primary Care Trust]]s providing [[primary care]] (PCTs) * [[NHS Hospital Trust]]s, (often referred to as ''Acute Trusts'') * [[NHS Ambulance Services Trust]]s [http://www.nhs.uk/England/AuthoritiesTrusts/Ambulance/Default.aspx] * [[NHS Care Trust]]s * [[NHS Mental Health Services Trust]]s [http://www.nhs.uk/England/AuthoritiesTrusts/MentalHealth/Default.aspx]. Eleven '''NHS Special Authorities''', organised on an NHS Trust basis, deal with NHS-wide issues:[http://www.nhs.uk/England/AuthoritiesTrusts/Special/list.aspx] *Health Protection Agency *Mental Health Act Commission *[[National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence]] *National Patient Safety Agency *National Treatment Agency *NHS Appointments Commission *NHS Blood and Transplant *NHS Business Services Authority *NHS Direct www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk *NHS Litigation Authority *NHS Professionals Special Health Authority *The Health and Social Care Information Centre *The NHS Institute For Innovation and Improvement In addition there are (after reorganization in [[2006]]) ten '''[[Strategic Health Authority|Strategic Health Authorities]]''' (SHAs), organised on a regional basis, which have the responsibility of coordinating the strategies of the health trusts in their regions. These are also headed by boards of executive and non-executive directors. All NHS Trust Boards are required to have an Audit Committee consisting only of non-executive directors, on which the Chairman may not sit. This committee is entrusted not only with supervision of financial [[audit]], but of systems of [[corporate governance]] within the Trust. == See also == * [[National Health Service]] * [[NHS Foundation Trust]] * [[List of NHS Trusts]] == References == *[http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/primary_care_10_02.pdf Map showing Primary Care Trusts] {{med-org-stub}} {{health-stub}} [[Category:National Health Service]]