As of 1 November 2024, we are now NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group (UHLG).
It’s an exciting step forward and example of how our system can work more collaboratively for the benefit of our patients and their families – shaping the future of health and care within our city region.
About the Group
Our group of hospitals provide acute and specialist care to the people of Merseyside and beyond. It was created through the coming together of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust (LWH).
We have one Group Board of Directors, and alongside an Executive Managing Director and Hospital Leadership Team at each of our sites: Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool Clinical Laboratories, Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Each Executive Managing Director is a voting member of the Group Board, which ensures our sites retain their identity, voice, and influence at board-level.
Through the Group model, LUHFT and LWH remain two statutory entities. Because of this, some things remain the same. Examples of these retained functions include separate Council of Governors, several committees (such as charitable funds), and our CQC ratings. Clinical services and how our patients access our services also remain the same.
However, in many aspects we are now starting to work as one. This does not mean everything becomes standardised because we offer different services, but where possible we will be taking a unified approach.
In the coming years UHLG will continue to expand to better meet the needs of our patients. More detailed information on the plan for integrating all the organisations within the Liverpool Adult Acute and Specialist Providers (LAASP) Joint Committee into the Group can be found here.
You can read more about what the group is in this downloadable guide.
Benefits of the Group
The creation of UHLG supports the long-stated ambition of Liverpool Women’s Hospital to be aligned to a larger acute site for the management of clinical risks. It also means that where appropriate, we can address co-ordination of patient care across pathways.
Additionally, coming together as a Group will make best use of our collective workforce, providing colleagues with more opportunities for professional development and enhance career prospects across a wider breadth of services.
Additional information, FAQs and new templates
Over the coming weeks and months, together we will develop how we all work in these new arrangements. This will include establishing a new vision, values and a Group corporate strategy.
We have produced this guide to give you some practical information about UHLG, and have developed FAQs to answer common questions you may have.
New templates
We have created some new templates to represent UHLG.
You can access a new set of UHLG templates, such as branded Word and PowerPoint documents, on the Communications Hub.
We understand that the LUHFT logo, ribbon and brand colours will still be visible on a lot of documents and visuals that we use.
We’d like to reassure colleagues that this is ok, there is no expectation to immediately replace all documents from Day 1. However, where possible, particularly when representing the organisation externally, new UHLG templates should be used, which feature our new Group logo.
Digital update
There has also been a number of significant digital improvements to support cross-site working between Aintree, Broadgreen, LCL, Liverpool Women’s and the Royal Liverpool.
These updates are part of an ongoing effort to make it easier for colleagues to work together, share resources, and stay connected across sites.
The Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust website has become the University Hospitals of Liverpool Group website.
This means that our URL has changed to www.
Our social media platforms have also been renamed to reflect the Group. The new handles are as follows:
- Facebook: facebook.com/nhsUHLG
- X (Twitter): @nhsUHLG
- Instagram: @liverpoolhospitals
Whilst we develop how we all work in these new arrangements; Liverpool Women’s Hospital will retain their own website and social media platforms.
Wi-Fi:
- Colleagues will be able to access and connect to Wi-Fi across all sites using their existing credentials, no matter if their laptop is a LWH or LUHFT device
Enhanced Office 365 integration:
- Microsoft Teams: Colleagues can now see Teams presence and message staff from all sites
- Simplified document sharing: You can now easily share documents and collaborate with all colleagues
- Easier Teams group setup: Creating Teams groups that include colleagues from different sites is now more straightforward, improving project coordination.
Enhanced email and calendar capabilities:
- Improved contact search: Easily find and communicate with colleagues from within Outlook
- Shared calendar access: Schedule meetings and manage appointments more easily with shared calendar visibility across all sites.
For most colleagues, no action is needed at this time. These changes will be applied automatically. Should you experience any issues with Wi-Fi access, Office 365 tools, email/calendar functionality, or network drives, please reach out to the IT service desk.
In addition to these improvements, we are currently reviewing access to clinical and corporate applications, shared file and folder access, and workstation logins across all our sites. This review will help further streamline access and ensure that colleagues have what they need to work efficiently and securely. Additional updates will be provided as these reviews progress.
