COMMENT: QA Hospital and University of Portsmouth partnership is exciting for the whole city

While the renamed Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust continues to provide care as it has always done, it will also work on improvements in research and education under its new partnership with the University of Portsmouth.

They've already had a tie-up for the past decade. But this is taking things much further.

We're talking about two of the biggest employers in the city joining forces and the benefits of that alliance are potentially huge, for patients, staff and students.

The ambition of the trust is that every patient at the hospital will have access to clinical trials or innovations, while treatment will involve greater use of cutting-edge technology.

The hospital has been involved in several trials, including one where patients helped to test drugs as part of the search for treatments to help Covid-19 patients recover. But we can expect this to increase as its new status means it will be ideal for tests and pilots.

Meanwhile, becoming a university hospital should also mean more training and employment opportunities for clinical staff and prove an added attraction to get the best clinicians to come and work here.

This is all about the hospital and the university teaming up to share their considerable expertise and resources and using the power of research to benefit patients.

As trust chief executive Mark Cubbon said: ‘We will embed research, education and training across all that we do to continue to drive improvements and ensure that our patients receive the best possible care.'

The two institutions are now inextricably linked and the opportunities ahead are huge.