Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is an NHS trust which was formed on 1 October 2013 by the merger of Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It is responsible for running two acute hospitals, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and University Hospital Lewisham, in addition to community health services in Lewisham. Despite extensive local opposition and legal challenges in Lewisham, the forced merger came about as part of the dissolution of South London Healthcare NHS Trust - of which Queen Elizabeth was part, but Lewisham was not - and was approved by Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt on 26 September 2013.