North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) now share a unified board of non-executive directors under the Bristol NHS Group, established in April 2025.
Ingrid Barker, group chair of the Bristol NHS Group, said: “I’m delighted to have appointed a single Board for our Group and look forward to working with them as we strive to achieve our vision for seamless, sustainable, high-quality care for the benefit of our Patients, our People, our Population, and the Public Purse.
“Non-Executive Directors play a crucial role in the safe and effective running of the NHS and each appointee to our Bristol NHS Group Board brings valuable skills and experience from a wide variety of roles within the wider community to our two Trusts.”
The new non-executive board members are Martin Sykes, UHBW vice chair; Sarah Purdy, NBT vice chair; Linda Kennedy; Marc Griffiths; Richard Gaunt; Roy Shubhabrata; Shawn Smith, NBT; and Sue Balcombe, UHBW.
In July, the group announced plans to explore becoming a single organisation to achieve greater economies of scale.
In the meantime, the boards of NBT and UHBW will continue to meet ‘in common’ as a single group board, working alongside the new single Group Executive team formed in the same month.
Two organisation-specific Non-Executive Directors will provide an independent voice for each organisation.