Updated 30 May 2025
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS acute Trust consisting of University Hospital Aintree, New Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital, Liverpool University Dental Hospital and Liverpool Clinical Laboratories. Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) was formerly called Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It changed its name on 1 October 2019 when it acquired Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust.
Services include acute medicine, urgent and emergency care, acute frailty units, rehabilitation services, dental services and surgical services to a local population of approximately 630,000 people across North Merseyside. It provides some specialist services that extend to more than 2 million people across the north west of England including the major trauma centre based at University Hospital Aintree.
The New Royal Liverpool University Hospital is also a national centre for ocular oncology (eye cancer) and some other cancers. Liverpool University Dental Hospital supports dental teaching and provides emergency care and a range of specialist dental services including restorative dentistry, paediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery and medicine and a consultant-led Dental Sedation Unit.
Liverpool Clinical Laboratories is the largest pathology service provider in Cheshire and Merseyside, formed in 2013 from the amalgamation of the pathology clinical services and laboratories of the Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust. In October 2022 the New Royal University Hospital moved into a purpose-built hospital adjacent to the site of the old one. The new building has 640 single patient rooms with ensuite facilities and is the largest single room hospital in Europe.
The Trust employs more than 15,175 staff across the sites.
The trust was last inspected in 2021 and rated as requires improvement in safe, effective, responsive, caring as good and inadequate for being well-led.
Following the June 2021 inspections, under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, we imposed urgent conditions on the trust’s CQC registration as we believed people were being exposed to the risk of harm within the Emergency Departments. We reinspected the Emergency Departments in September 2023 improvement was seen and the conditions removed.
Since June 2021 inspection a new Chair, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Nurse, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Transformation Officer, Chief People Officer, Chief Digital and Information Officer and Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer have been appointed.
Following a Liverpool Clinical Services Review in 2022 NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) asked the 5 Adult Acute and specialist hospitals across Liverpool to put arrangements in place to find solutions and have a simpler way of making decisions about the things that involve patients and their families, members of the public and NHS staff in the system.
As such, a Joint Committee for the five Adult Acute and Specialist Hospitals was established in November 2024.This replaced the Liverpool Trusts Joint Committee which had been in place since June 2023.
Two of the trusts, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust established a Group Board on 1 November 2024.
The Group Board is referred to as NHS University Hospitals Liverpool and at this stage Liverpool Women’s and Liverpool University Hospitals remain registered with CQC as separate legal entities. For the purposes of this well-led inspection, we have inspected Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation trust only, however the Group Board now covers both trusts.
Feedback from partners and stakeholders is that the trust has improved.
We undertook a trust-level assessment (well-led review) of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which included an on-site visit on 21 to 23 January 2025. We undertook further visits to observe the trust’s board meeting on 30 January 2025. We assessed all 8 of the quality statements in the well-led key question used when assessing an NHS trust in the Single Assessment Framework. We found positive findings within all eight of the quality statements.
The well-led review followed several assessments of the trust’s frontline services (assessment service groups). The initial assessment of the trust’s services was triggered in October 2024. This resulted in an assessment of the trust’s medical care (including older people’s care) at University Hospital Aintree, New Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital. Further assessments of urgent and emergency care at University Hospital Aintree and New Royal Liverpool University (Hospital) took place. We undertook these assessments to ensure we had a thorough understanding of the full range of services provided by the trust ahead of our well-led review.
We assessed quality statements within the well-led key question. Each quality statement assessed is awarded a score. Details on how we score can be found on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-do-our-job/ratings
You can find further information about we carried out our assessments at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection
We looked for evidence that there was an inclusive and positive culture of continuous learning and improvement that was based on meeting the needs of people who used services and wider communities. We checked that leaders proactively supported staff and collaborated with partners to deliver care that was safe, integrated, person-centred and sustainable, and to reduce inequalities.
This is the first assessment for this service. This key question has been rated good. This meant there were inclusive leaders at all levels and there was a positive culture of continuous learning and improvement. This was based on meeting the needs of people who use services and wider communities, and leaders and staff shared this. Leaders proactively supported staff and collaborated with partners to deliver care that was safe, integrated, person-centred and sustainable, and worked to reduce inequalities.