NHS Trust boards
NHS Trusts provide hospital and community health services. A Trust may be a single hospital, a group of hospitals or may provide community health services to patients in clinics or their own homes. Some specialist Trusts are responsible for ambulance services.
Each Trust has certain powers to organise its own affairs and it is the responsibility of the Trust board to plan and direct the way it works.
The Trust board consists of:
- a non-executive chair (appointed by the Appointments Commission);
- normally five non-executive directors (appointed by the Appointments Commission);
- up to five executive members, including the chief executive, finance director and medical director.
Each Trust will receive most of their income through service agreements with Primary Care Trusts, which set out the types of treatment and services that the Trust will provide.