Trust Membership
Membership provides members of the local community with a way to express their loyalty and support to their local hospitals. Becoming a member will allow you to get more involved and play an active role in the development of our hospitals.
Through our members and our Council of Governors, we listen to the views of local people, patients, staff and volunteers.
Membership is our way of developing a closer relationship with our community and provides us with an opportunity to communicate with our members on issues of importance about our hospitals and their development.
Membership is your chance to be involved and take ownership.
Public membership
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is accountable to our patients, staff, and stakeholders. People from each of these groups can become members.
Becoming a member will allow you to be more involved and to play an active role in the development of our hospitals. You can be involved as much or as little as you choose.
Benefits of membership include:
- A copy of our monthly e-newsletter Trust Matters
- Access to view our monthly digital events
- The opportunity to join focus groups
- Access to the national NHS Discounts Scheme
- Regular opportunities to meet your local governor and provide your views
- Invitation to the annual general meeting and open days
- The chance to stand for election on the Council of Governors
It’s free to join and there is no minimum time commitment.
Becoming a member
To become a member you must be 16 years old and over and live locally in the areas specified below:
- The Newark and Sherwood districts
- The rest of the East Midlands, including Ashfield, Mansfield and anywhere else in the East Midlands.
If you live outside our local area, you can join as an affiliate member, giving you all the benefits of full membership, other than the opportunity to vote for a governor or stand for election to the Council of Governors.
If you are a member of another Foundation Trust you can still become a member of ours.
Our staff and volunteers are automatically members unless they have chosen to opt out.
You can sign up to be a member online.
Confirming your membership
After you have submitted your application form, you will receive a welcome email within 28 days. You may be contacted in the future if an event or group is arranged that may be of interest.
Staff membership
All new members of staff automatically become members as soon as they join the Trust. If you would like to opt out of membership, please email sfh-tr.membership@nhs.net.
What does being a member involve?
As a staff member, you can decide exactly how involved you want to be, depending on the time you have available. You may simply want to receive regular communications and updates from us, or you may wish to play a more active role by:
- Standing for election as a governor
- Participating in surveys/questionnaires
- Attending member events/open days
- Being involved in health promotions/campaigns
- Fund-raising
- Recruiting new members.
To qualify for membership, staff must be on a permanent contract or have a fixed-term contract of at least 12 months. All staff who are contracted to work on the Trust's hospital sites that have at least 12 months service are also eligible to become members.
Membership for the bank and locum staff who have not worked for the Trust for three consecutive months will cease to be valid.
I am already a public member - do I need to cancel this?
If you have previously signed up to be a public member of the Trust, you will need to cancel this membership. You can do this by emailing sfh-tr.membership@nhs.net or calling 01623 622515 extension 6911.
If you are not sure if you are a member already, please contact the membership office on the number above and they can check for you.
The staff membership takes precedence over the public membership and you are unable to be both a public member and a staff member.
