The Bristol NHS Group is a strategic partnership between University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) and North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT). It was formed to deliver seamless, high-quality, equitable, and sustainable healthcare across Bristol, Weston-super-Mare, South Gloucestershire, and the wider South West. Led by Maria Kane as Group Chief Executive and Ingrid Barker as Group Chair, the Group has a combined clinical and non-clinical workforce of 28,000 and a turnover exceeding £2.2 billion.
Built around a shared ambition to improve outcomes for the “Four Ps”: patients, people, population, and the public purse, the Group prioritises outstanding care, staff wellbeing, resource optimisation, research and innovation, and collaborative working. With infrastructure and processes to engage with industry and research partners, the Group aims to support the development, testing and adoption of innovations across clinical and non-clinical services.
The Group is amongst the most research active organisations in the country , securing £2.4m of NIHR-funded research capability in 2025-26, more than any trust in the UK. Both Trusts are major teaching hospitals with strong partnerships with both University of Bristol and University of West of England.
UHBW delivers over 100 clinical services across 10 hospital sites to a core population of more than 500,000. With over 15,000 staff, UHBW provides care from neonatal intensive care to services for older people, and is nationally recognised for excellence in cardiac, cancer, children’s, and hepatology care. It also hosts the NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network.
NBT serves Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and the wider region with a range of specialist and general services. Its 13,000-strong workforce delivers care from emergency and trauma services to complex neurological and renal care predominantly from Southmead Hospital; one of the largest acute hospitals in the UK, with advanced surgical theatres, robotic surgery, interventional radiology and critical care facilities. NBT is nationally recognised for its expertise in neurosciences, urology, stroke care, orthopaedics, and major trauma. It hosts Severn Pathology and South West Genomic Laboratory Hub (SWGLH) – nationally designated hub delivering genomic analysis for cancer and rare diseases across the South West, accelerating adoption of precision medicine.
