[1] It announced plans to seek either a partnership with an NHS foundation trust, a private-sector franchise or the break-up of its services to a number of providers, but in February 2014 after “an exhaustive examination of the options” to test their financial and clinical viability the Trust Board “found that none of them appeared to meet the stringent criteria required”.

He told the Hereford Times he was leaving after 11 years with the NHS in the county to “pursue business interests.” He was the third high-profile loss to the Trust in 2014 with both chief executive Derek Smith and medical director Dr Peter Wilson confirming that they were leaving in June and May respectively.

The chief executive Glen Burley and chair Russell Hardy will be appointed chief executive and chair of Wye Valley on a part-time basis in a move reported as likely to lead to the formation of a hospital chain,[4] a development opposed by local MP Jesse Norman.

[5] In July 2017 it agreed to set up a “foundation group” to create twin Accountable care organizations with South Warwickshire, though there does not appear to be any plan to merge the two trusts.

[11] The trust was one of the beneficiaries of Boris Johnson's announcement of capital funding for the NHS in August 2019, with an allocation of £23.6 million for new hospital wards in Hereford providing 72 beds.