MOVES to reorganise Oxford's major hospitals into an 'academic super trust' look set to herald another major health shake-up in the city.

The NHS has confirmed that the existing Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust could be replaced by a new super foundation trust.

The aim is to help the city's hospitals capitalise on Oxford University's reputation for innovation, to bring in extra millions and help local patients benefit quickly from research breakthroughs.

The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre could also be incorporated into the proposed 'Oxford Academic Health Sciences Centre', along with the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals.

A question mark has been hanging over the future of the NOC as an independent health trust in recent months, and the news will bring new hope for those campaigning on behalf of the specialist hospital in Headington.

The creation of the new centre would at a stroke remove the confusions of the existing system, which sees NHS and university staff working side by side, sometimes doing the same work. It would also give the university a far greater say in hospital strategy.

The creation of the centre would formalise the university's complex relationship with local teaching hospitals. Many hospital consultants and researchers are fellows of colleges, with university medical students trained at the Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals.

The idea of a radical alternative to the existing trust structure is set out in the new NHS document for the region, Towards A Healthier Future.

It says: "A particular opportunity exists to harness the world-class research expertise of Oxford University with the development of an NHS foundation trust in Oxford to create an academic sciences centre.

"Such a partnership would give the potential to create an organisation of international significance in terms of biomedical research and healthcare provision."

Prof John Newton, South Central Strategic Health Authority director of public health, said: "The idea is to raise the game of the NHS in Oxford to a different level. Patients will not see any major reconfiguration of services. But it will allow Oxford hospitals to be more innovative and adopt new practices more quickly.

"This is by no means a takeover by the university. But the centre will bring to bear the resources of the university as well as the resources of the NHS. It will be an NHS-run organisation. But the university will have a much greater input into the leadership of the organisation."

Trevor Campbell Davis, chief executive of the ORH Trust, said: "The academic health sciences centre is integral to the trust's view of the future.

"This will bring world-class doctors and researchers to work here."

He hoped that plans for the academic centre would develop as the trust moved to foundation status next year.

The only existing model of an academic health centre is at Imperial College in London. But the Government is expected to announce its backing for similar initiatives around the country next month in its planned health review.

The ORH Trust secured £57.5m after being named as a new biomedical research centre last year. And the idea of academic research centres is viewed as taking the idea of centres of health excellence a step further.

Oxford University's regius professor of medicine, John Bell, said: "It is very much a new idea within the NHS.

"These partnerships between universities and health providers are common in Canada, Sweden, Singapore and the United States. All the top 15 hospitals in the States are academic health science centres."