Having joined King’s Health Partners just a short time ago as Chair, I have observed a strong determination across all the partners and a shared aspiration to make the organisation the leading Academic Health Sciences Centre in the UK.

The commitment and vision are not surprising. Between us we have all the components for success – a university, and hospitals with some of the greatest research and teaching records in the world and a diverse patient population presenting both opportunity and need for applying advances in healthcare.

King’s Health Partners is also particularly well placed to focus on the benefits of bringing together physical and mental healthcare, coupled with a commitment to focus on preventive as well as restorative treatment.

This is not to say that the realisation of our vision will be easy. It is one thing to see that great and historic institutions can be stronger together than separately; it is another to create the arrangements which fully respect and exploit their different obligations and traditions. The partners will have to proceed incrementally, but at a speed that will allow us to maintain momentum and ensure that confidence isn’t lost.

All this will be at a time of serious pressure on resources. The silver lining is that times like these make people willing to contemplate rationalisation which years of plenty allow them to ignore.

The prospect is one of huge challenge but also huge opportunity. I am delighted to have joined an organisation that is clearly up for the challenge and has the leadership team to see it through.