A trust in special measures is set to be mentored by an American award-winning hospital in an initiative launched by the Health Secretary.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) will benefit from the influence of internationally acclaimed healthcare experts from the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle.

Clinicians and leaders will teach the doctors and nurses at Queen’s and King George hospitals, in Romford and Goodmayes, the principles and systems that made it so successful in the next five years.

The system, drawing inspiration from the Toyota Production System and manufacturing principles, is aimed at enabling nurses to do their jobs more efficiently and spend almost triple the amount of time with their patients than they do currently.

BHRUT has been in special measures since December 2013 and a fresh inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released earlier this month found the trust to still be failing despite improvements.

Yesterday (July 16) Jeremy Hunt said: “I want to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world, powered by a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

“The achievements at Virginia Mason over the past decade are truly inspirational and I’m delighted they will now help NHS staff to learn the lessons that made their hospital one of the safest in the world – patients will see real benefits as a result.”

Chief Executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust Matthew Hopkins said he was “absolutely delighted”.

“I am absolutely delighted that Virginia Mason have seen how passionate we are about improving care and services for our patients and have agreed to work with us for the next five years," he said.

“This is a real investment in us as an organisation and the population that we serve.

“I have no doubt that this work will prove invaluable, and I am proud that we will be at the forefront of an initiative which will have benefits for the NHS as a whole.”

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King George Hospital in Goodmayes.