Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (MCFT) has completed the acquisition of North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NWBH), and now will offer services across the Merseyside, Cheshire, and the North West.
From 1st June staff and services started to become part of the Mersey Care Trust, after approval was given by regulators, NHS England and Improvement and the Executive boards of both Trusts.
Joe Rafferty CBE, Mersey Care’s Chief Executive, said: “The two Trusts have been working together since 2019 to share resources and jointly provide the best quality healthcare across the footprint of both Trusts.
“Following detailed internal discussions, it was decided to bring our services together into a larger Mersey Care, which we believe will be better for patients, service users, carers and staff across a larger footprint.
“The big benefit for the two organisations coming together is that it presents opportunities to make sure high quality, integrated physical and mental health services are provided across a much larger geographical footprint. That will strengthen our commitment to improve the health of the communities we serve, meet the growing demand for out of hospital services and increasingly provide care closer to home.
“It’s important patients understand there’ll be no change in their services, just a change in who manages them, and we want to work with them by asking their views so we can improve how they access those services in the future.”
Over 3,000 staff from NWBH and a wide range of services will move across, including specialist inpatient and community services that support mental health, learning disabilities and children’s and young people’s mental health services (CAHMS).
Mental health services in Wigan, Bolton and Greater Manchester, that formed a part of NWBH, were taken over by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust on April 1 2021.
Other services being offered in Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Warrington will transfer to Mersey Care.
