Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust located in Cambridge, England. The trust provides healthcare for people in the Cambridge area, in eastern England, and specialist services such as transplantation, treatment of rare cancers and neurological intensive care for a much wider area. It is located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and runs Addenbrooke's Hospital and the Rosie Hospital. It is a member of the Shelford Group, an informal organisation of ten leading English university teaching hospitals.
History It was established on 4 November 1992, as Addenbrooke's National Health Service Trust, and authorised as an NHS foundation trust under its current name on 1 July 2004. Roland Sinker is the current chief executive; Sinker joined the trust in 2015 moving from King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London where he was acting CEO. He had previously been the chief operating officer from 2009 to 2015. In March 2025, it was announced that around 500 non-clinical roles were to be axed within the trust in order to save money.
Research Cambridge University Hospitals sits in the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and is part of the internationally renowned research campus which has seen a huge expansion over the last 20 years. The hospital is a partner in one of six designated academic health science centres, Cambridge University Health Partners, formed with Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge. Research is central to the role and function of this specialist teaching hospital. In 2017, it was awarded £114 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, a research partnership with the University of Cambridge. There are approximately 1,000 research studies underway at one time covering a range of health conditions including common conditions like diabetes and heart disease, through to specialist research in rare dementias and rare cancers. The hospital has a number of high-specification facilities, equipment and resource to support all of this activity, including the recently expanded Cambridge Clinical Research Facilities offering 24/7 clinical beds to support Phase I and Phase II studies. In addition there is support to set up and initiate studies from the Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit, the Research & Development Department, the Cambridge BioResource and in processing and managing studies an onsite pharmacy and BioRepository. Cambridge is one of 13 Genomic Medicine Centres, and the lead site for the East of England Genomic Medicine Centre, part of the 100,000 Genomes Project which is sequencing whole genomes of people with rare diseases and cancers.
Performance
The trust was one of 26 responsible for half of the national growth in patients waiting more than four hours in accident and emergency over the 2014/15 winter. The trust spent £13.2 million on agency staff in 2014/5. Performance against the target in November 2019 was the worst since 2009. Only 92 per cent of patients were seen within four hours. The Care Quality Commission placed the trust in special measures in September 2015. This was a surprising move and generated considerable publicity and controversy. The chief executive, Dr Keith McNeil and the finance director resigned. Its sudden failure has been blamed on shortages of staff and an increased use of agency staff, which increased costs and reduced quality and on the new Epic electronic health record system. Waiting times for treatment increased and as many as 200 beds were occupied by patients who were medically fit for discharge, so that the hospital was repeatedly unable to admit patients. It projected a loss of £64 million for 2015/16. In December 2015, staff were told payment of their salaries was dependent on a loan from the Department of Health. In February 2016 it was expecting a deficit of £39.7 million for the year. In September 2015, the trust was placed in special measures after Care Quality Commission inspectors deemed it inadequate. It was taken out of special measures in January 2017, following a visit from inspectors the previous September. The Care Quality Commission has since given the Trust a rating of "good". At the end of March 2017, the trust was confirmed as one of four additional NHS Global Digital Exemplars; joining the twelve announced in September 2016. It plans a deficit of £93 million for 2018-19, and has outstanding loans of £263 million. Roland Sinker, the chief executive, warned staff in November 2021 that patients could be sent to hospitals in Birmingham or London if it could not tackle an ongoing bed crisis and that he was 'anxious and scared' that its main acute site was under so much pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic in England that it was "ceasing to function as a hospital" as 150 beds out of 900 were out of action. It has set up a service called Enhanced Reviews in Care Homes (EnRICH) which has reduced hospital admissions of residents from care homes by 23% and saved 1,300 inpatient bed days in a year.
Accommodation The trust has 825 on-site bedrooms for staff and in 2022 is planning to increase that number, as the cost of local accommodation is causing recruitment problems, especially for nursing and midwifery staff. 60 offices could be returned to residential use.
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