# The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Withington, Manchester, manages the Christie Hospital, one of the largest cancer treatment centres of its type in Europe. The Christie became an NHS Foundation Trust in 2007 and is also an international leader in cancer research and development, home to the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research.
The trust has a total annual turnover of around £143 million. Eight per cent of its income is from private patients. Around 2,000 staff and over 300 volunteers work at the Christie.

## Private treatment

HCA Healthcare has run a specialist private cancer unit in partnership with the trust since 2010. 20% of the oncologists who work at the Trust have shares in this venture. It generated revenues of £25 million in 2018–9.

## History

The Christie became a NHS Foundation Trust on 1 April 2007. The first Chair of the Trust was Jim Martin. He was replaced in May 2011 by Lord Keith Bradley.
Caroline Shaw, the chief executive of the trust, was suspended from her duties on 19 December 2013 while investigations were conducted as part of a disciplinary process. It was alleged that she had made an improper claim for the payment of expenses for a retreat in Ibiza organised by the Young Presidents' Organization, of which she had become a member with the Trust's agreement. In February 2014 Lord Bradley announced that he would resign from the board as a consequences of disagreements about the way in which the suspension of the Chief Executive was being handled. Sir Hugh Taylor was appointed as interim Chair of the Trust. Shaw resigned in October 2014, having been suspended on full pay for 11 months- amounting to £170,000 and left with another six months salary - just under £100,000.
Dr Kim Holt, chair of the patient safety campaign group Patients First, demanded an independent investigation into claims of bullying, intimidation and dismissal of whistleblowers at the Trust in March 2014. A report was conducted by Monitor (NHS) and the CQC which concluded there was no evidence of serious failings of governance or widespread cultural issues at the trust. NHS England commissioned a review in 2020 into events at the trust after whistleblowers raised numerous concerns over a research project with pharmaceutical giant Roche. The review, led by Angela Schofield, chair of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust described the trust's research division as “ineffective” and said it had “allowed inappropriate behaviours to continue without challenge”. She went on to say “The leadership of The Christie had a number of opportunities to avert this rapid review as colleagues in the R&I division began to speak up about their concerns. Not only did they not seem to recognise this but there were occasions when they appeared to be defensive and dismissive.” The board responded by saying "we do not have systematic problems with discrimination, bullying or responding to concerns."

## Performance

It was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 2,313 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 3.41%. 92% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 73% recommended it as a place to work. The Care Quality Commission rated it as outstanding in 2016.
In 2018 the trust entered into a partnership arrangement with Hoffmann-La Roche which was intended to involve The Christie providing blood samples from 5,000 patients per year, with the company's subsidiaries, Flatiron Health and Foundation Medicine, building a "clinico-genomic database". Reports into the project found that there was "insufficient due diligence on alternative options" and no formal procurement process. Staff concerns raised at the time were brushed aside as was legal advice that it was "not as clear as we might hope that any research…[carried] out will be for the benefit of the trust at all".