“The clinical driver for us doing something to stop us working as seven silos was to say ‘Why don’t we just work as one?’”

“The national shortage of neurologists meant a network was the only way we could see to provide patients with the care they needed.”

“An inexorable rise in emergency admissions, more complex health problems, an ageing population and increasingly internet-savvy patients meant something had to change.”

“We have a national and international reputation clinically but we weren’t sustainable as a standalone organisation. By joining forces with another trust we’ve been able to start planning a franchise of specialist services underpinned by our expert training.”

“If your activity numbers are very low that would be a driver. There’s so much research to say that patient outcomes are much better if clinicians are undertaking that procedure on a much more regular basis.”