Preserve and protect Bath RNHRD's brand & mission within the new RUH NHS Foundation Trust

Bath's Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases' reputation for excellence, built over the last 250 years, has been shown to be consistently of the highest quality by recent CQC inspections. The RNHRD is the world's and the nation's first, iconic national hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases, Patients of the RNHRD, some with over 50 years experience of treatment, and from all over the country, believe that the historic site in the city centre is an essential ingredient in the exceptional quality of their treatment and should continue to serve them as it has on site and covering national as well as regional patients. Patients believe that the exceptional quality of the care they receive at RNHRD stems from an amalgum of factors. First from the reputation of the hospital for excellence of care, as a training centre for many of the world's senior practising rheumatologists, and where there is an integration of current research, clinical practice and application through therapy which has been built over many years within a small specialist institution, the birthplace of rheumatology. Secondly the symbiotic integration of practice and new thinking and the team approach engendered in a small institution provides a sense of identity and purpose that translates into exceptional approaches to treatment that can be identified by patients in comparison with that in other hospitals. Thirdly there is a sense of pride in the history and uniterrupted purpose of medical practice on this iconic site, that strengthens and influences practice in the same way that it does in other similalrly ancient institutions such as historic schools and universities. Lastly the RNHRD was the first national hospital to be created and it it remains functioning as that within the same buildings with doctors diagnosing and treating the same area of disease for which it was created 250 years ago. This makes it a vital part of our living national heritage and an essential ingredient of Bath's World Heritage City status.