An NHS hospital trust, also known as an acute trust is an NHS trust

NHS Trust

A National Health Service trust provides services on behalf of the National Health Service in England and NHS Wales.The trusts are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors, and is...

 that provides secondary health services within the English National Health Service

National Health Service

The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...

 and in NHS Wales. Hospital trusts are commissioned to provide these services by NHS primary care trust

NHS Primary Care Trust

An NHS primary care trust is a type of NHS trust, part of the National Health Service in England. PCTs commission primary, community and secondary care from providers. Until 31 may2011 they also provided community services directly. Collectively PCT are responsible for spending around 80% of the...

s.

Trusts judged to be performing with outstanding efficiency may apply to Monitor

Monitor (NHS)

Monitor, also known as the Independent Regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts, is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to regulate NHS Foundation Trusts or Foundation Hospitals - hospitals that have opted out of direct governmental control. The body was established in...

 to become NHS foundation trust

NHS Foundation Trust

An NHS foundation trust is part of the National Health Service in England and has gained a degree of independence from the Department of Health and local NHS strategic health authority.Foundation Trusts are represented by the , .-Function:...

s. These trusts are given greater independence from NHS strategic health authorities

NHS Strategic Health Authority

NHS strategic health authorities are part of the structure of the National Health Service in England. Each SHA is responsible for enacting the directives and implementing fiscal policy as dictated by the Department of Health at a regional level. In turn each SHA area contains various NHS trusts...

.

According to the NHS website, as of December 2009 there are 168 acute NHS trusts in England.