The Royal Free London has been awarded £8 million of funding from NHS England to support its work as a new models of care vanguard. 

The vanguards are partnerships of NHS, local government, voluntary, community and other organisations that are implementing plans to improve the healthcare people receive, prevent ill health and save funds.

The Royal Free London was named an acute care collaboration vanguard in September and plans to become the heart of a group that other organisations will want to collaborate with. The trust is considering options including buddying, merging specific office functions and other innovative models such as joint clinical and corporate ventures.

The key benefits of this approach are that it would reduce the variation patients can experience in care, increase efficiency and reduce costs to the healthcare economy.

The new vanguards will receive financial and practical support, and learning from their experience will be used by other areas in coming years.

This is part of a joint programme led by NHS England and NHS Improvement with other NHS Five Year Forward View partners.

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Notes to editors

About the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Free began as a pioneering organisation and continues to play a leading role in the care of patients. Our mission is to provide world class expertise and local care. In the 21st century, the Royal Free London continues to lead improvements in healthcare.

The Royal Free London attracts patients from across the country and beyond to its specialist services in liver and kidney transplantation, haemophilia, renal care, HIV, infectious diseases, plastic surgery, immunology, Parkinson's disease, vascular surgery, cardiology, amyloidosis and scleroderma and we are a member of the academic health science partnership UCLPartners.

In July 2014 Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital became part of the Royal Free London. Read 'A bigger trust, a better future'.