By Mark Smulian | 14 August 2013
Health sector regulator Monitor has cleared the merger of two London NHS hospital trusts.
The watchdog’s Co-operation and Competition Panel said that merging the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust would be unlikely to lead to either a loss of choice or to higher costs.
Barnet and Chase Farm trust initiated the merger process after concluding that it could not on its own qualify for foundation trust status.
If the trusts now decide to go ahead with the planned merger, Monitor said it would require further assurances about the financial health of the new merged trust, its governance and quality of patient care.
The review was conducted under the Principles and Rules for Co-operation and Competition, which were in force when the process began in August 2012. These were superseded by the Health and Social Care Act (2012) on April 1.
