NHS Providers comment on coronavirus

Who we are

NHS Providers is the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services that treat patients and service users in the NHS. We help those NHS foundation trusts and trusts to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system in which they operate.
 
NHS Providers has all trusts in England in voluntary membership, collectively accounting for £104bn of annual expenditure and employing 1.2 million staff.

We are a charity, funded by members (NHS trusts and foundation trusts), to represent the views of our member trust leadership teams and speak on their behalf. The public comments we make will always reflect the views and experience of frontline trust leaders.

We also promote and share good practice and are a central repository for sharing the approaches trusts are developing to tackle the unprecedented challenge the NHS is facing.

Who we are not

We are not part of the government or any of the NHS arm's-length bodies, such as NHS England and NHS Improvement, although we do maintain close contact and dialogue with key partners at these organisations in order to influence and shape the environment in which our members operate. We talk to NHS national leaders to understand their perspective. 

We are not involved in organising, co-ordinating or setting the policy for any operational aspects of the NHS or the operating activities of our members, such as organising the purchase or distribution of personal protection equipment or the coronavirus testing regime.

We do not represent primary care, social care, independent healthcare providers or frontline NHS staff and cannot therefore speak on their behalf. We will, though, comment on issues involving them, through the perspective of trust leaders.

We are not medically trained and do not have clinical expertise. Some of the issues we comment on inevitably involve us touching us on clinical issues, but we do so from a non clinical perspective.

What you can expect from us

We have 100% of trusts in voluntary membership, allowing us to speak with unrivalled authority and credibility on issues affecting trust leadership teams. We are in constant dialogue with our member chairs and chief executives and can therefore offer an accurate an up to date perspective on how the NHS trust response to coronavirus is developing.

We do not comment on what is happening in individual trusts. We offer a  national level, sector wide, picture. We can also provide context and explanation – for example we can explain what declaring a critical incident means and why a trust might call one, but we would not comment on why a specific trust has done so at a particular time. 

Additionally, our close engagement with the government and central NHS leadership, combined with our in-house policy expertise, enable us to offer authoritative commentary in support of an informed and constructive debate on the NHS and our wider health and care system.

Our details 

If you have a media enquiry please email press@nhsproviders.org

Or talk to one of our press office team:

Susan Bahl
Head of Media
susan.bahl@nhsproviders.org
07842 405135

Nicole Moore
Media Relations Manager
nicole.moore@nhsproviders.org
07715 077141

Kevan McClair
Senior Media and Communications Officer
kevan.mcclair@nhsproviders.org
07926 987308

Adam Brimelow
Director of Communications
adam.brimelow@nhsproviders.org
07802 752308

Kofi Mensah-Ansong
Media and Communications Officer
kofi.mensah-ansong@nhsproviders.org
07341 564563

Duncan Jenner
Head of Communications
duncan.jenner@nhsproviders.org
07543 525466

On call rota

The easiest way to reach the on-duty contact is via press@nhsproviders.org

August
6/7 Aug - Duncan
13/14 Aug – Nicole
20/21 Aug – Kevan
27/28 Aug - Duncan
29 Aug (Bank Holiday) – Adam

September
3/4 Sep – Susan
10/11 Sep – Kathy (kathy.oxtoby@nhsproviders.org)
17/18 Sep – Adam
24/25 Sep – TBC