Hospital bosses have admitted that the next few weeks "will be messy" following the Burton and Derby trusts merger - with 55 senior members of staff yet to learn their future.

The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust launched on Sunday, July 1 following two years of planning to bring together the trusts in charge of five hospitals, including Queen's Hospital, in Burton.

But newly appointed chief executive of the combined trust Gavin Boyle said the future of tier three staff - including general managers, clinical directors, matrons and lead nurses - would be decided over the next six to eight weeks.

He said: "Ideally we would have had all the appointments in place before the starting point but we did make a conscious decision, because of the uncertainty about whether it was going to happen, to not go through tier three, as it involves a lot of people, if we weren't sure it was going to happen.

Gavin Boyle

"We did hold back, now we've got six to eight weeks where it might be a little bit messy. I think what we ought to do is acknowledge that and make sure everybody knows."

Hospital bosses hope that the move will see Burton remain a vibrant district hospital, with services in Derby sustained and specialised services developed, patient choice retained and extra services introduced to the community hospitals.

Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Queen's Hospital, along with two community hospitals, in Lichfield and Tamworth, has now merged with Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which controls the Royal Derby Hospital, and a community hospital in London Road, Derby.

Before the move could be confirmed, a patients' benefits case was produced and presented to two regulators to assess, with approval needed from both for the move to go ahead.

The two regulators were NHS Improvement, the health body's regulator and the competition and markets authority (CMA).

In March, the CMA confirmed that its investigations found the merger would be 'compelling', beneficial and outweighed any concerns about competition between the two trusts.

The CMA concluded that despite some concerns that patients might have less choice for some services, potentially reducing the trusts' incentives to maintain or improve quality in these services, this was outweighed by the expected benefits overall.

Burton Queen's Hospital
Burton Queen's Hospital

NHS Improvement submitted its own reply to the case of its independent view on the move.

This was considered by the provider regulatory committee of NHS Improvement, a senior group which looks at major plans including mergers and acquisitions.

They do not offer approval, but instead award the move a risk assessment rating, which the councils of governors of both trusts took into consideration in advance of a final decision.

However, as uncertainty remained whether the move would go through on July 1, certain appointments and decisions were not made.

Mr Boyle added: "There are fantastic people that work in this trust and there's something about trusting in your own judgement.

"Everybody is working with good intentions, I think we should give ourselves some slack and just accept that we are going through the transition period."

Gavin Boyle, central, launching the combined trust
Gavin Boyle, central, launching the combined trust

Tier three staff refers to around 55 members of staff who are general managers, clinical directors, matrons and lead nurses. Many of these roles are yet to be decided.

Meanwhile tier one and two appointments have been made, concerning executive directors, divisional directors, divisional nursing directors and associate directors.

Magnus Harrison, the former medical director of the Burton trust, has been handed the same role in the combined trust.

He spoke of his ambition to transform the trust into one that is "outstanding."

Mr Harrison said: "The seismic shift of taking on another 550,000 people (from the Derby Trust population area) didn't really impact on me at all, I didn't notice, which is exactly the way it should be.

"Purely from a Burton perspective we were in special measures and I think this is part of that journey now.

"We had an executive team that made all of the decisions and we're slowly devolving that decision-making through to clinical teams to people who actually know how those clinical services should be delivered.

"The next phase is about saying we've gone so far and to take the next step.

"'Requires improvement' is not something that sits easily with me from a CQC rating, so I want us to be 'good' at the next CQC visit, then the aspiration will be to be recognised as the only trust in the Midlands and East to be 'outstanding'.

"What we need is everyone on board, my role as an executive and the executive team is to create an environment where everyone can do good things."

Dr Magnus Harrison, medical director at the trust
Dr Magnus Harrison, medical director at the trust

History of the Burton and Derby hospital trusts merger

Planning documents for the proposed merger were submitted at the end of 2017.

Earlier, in June 2017, it was announced at a Healthwatch meeting that the outline business case for the partnership of the organisations, with a recommendation to merge, was approved.

Fears have been raised by many, particularly in Burton, that the hospital could lose services, including the accident and emergency department, but officials insisted that this is not the case.

The Burton Mail, as well as the town's MP Andrew Griffiths, joined the fight to keep it open.

At the Healthwatch meeting it was confirmed by bosses from both respective trusts, Helen Scott-South from Burton and Gavin Boyle from Derby, that the A&E department would not close.

A new trust has been formed, under a new combined title, 'University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust'.

The chairman will be John Rivers, the current chairman of both Derby and Burton trusts, and chief executive of Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Gavin Boyle, will take up the same role at the new trust.

Hospital bosses have previously revealed that Burton's Queen's Hospital could save almost £10 million next year if the merger goes ahead.

In March, 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority gave the move a green light, after ruling that benefits of the merger outweighed potential competition concerns.

On Sunday, July 1 the two trusts merged, forming the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.