Joint CEO for three hospitals in new collaboration

Cara Charles-Barks will be the joint CEO of three hospitals from 1 November

Three NHS hospital trusts have appointed a joint chief executive as part of a decision to collaborate more - but say this is not a merger.

Cara Charles-Barks has been announced as the new CEO of the Great Western Hospital (GWH) in Swindon, Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath and the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

Ms Charles-Barks was previously CEO at Salisbury, and is currently CEO at the RUH. She has worked in the region for eight years, receiving an MBE for her leadership during the Novichok poisoning incident.

She will be in post from 1 November and said she is "delighted" to have been appointed.

“As three trusts we now have the opportunity to learn together, to tackle inequalities in access to services, to work together to remove barriers to good health and provide improved health outcomes for all our communities,” she added.

Cara Charles-Barks (far left) - already CEO at the RUH - recently welcomed Queen Camilla to the opening of a new cancer centre

The move follows an earlier decision by the trusts to "establish a group model which will deliver better outcomes for the population we serve".

However, they will still be separate organisations with their own executive teams and boards.

Sue Harriman, the CEO of of the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, said: “True collaboration adds real value to patient care and all three hospital trusts have a unique role to play in strengthening the support that local people and communities count on at every stage of their lives."

Ms Charles-Barks first became a nurse in Australia in 1990, spending 30 years in the health care sector and has been named in the NHS top 50 CEOs list five times.

She is also an Honorary Colonel of 243 Multi-role Medical Regiment, part of the Army Medical Services.